


Lucky Cat

by Regenbogen



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda..., Morgana is a little shit, Not Beta Read, Past Child Abuse, Urban Fantasy, Were-Creatures, Werecat!Akira, Werecat!Ren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2019-05-24 15:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14957046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Regenbogen/pseuds/Regenbogen
Summary: If you were to ask someone if they thought that having the ability to turn into an animal and several other magical powers was cool, you could expect them to say yes.Akira would not be one of those people. Being born as a what was know as a were-beast had been tormenting him and ruining his life for as long as he could remember.But maybe that orange haired girl wasn't so bad...Werecat Au





	1. Chapter 1

It was an ordinary day for Futaba. Get up, go to school, wait until class is over and then return to Leblanc to bug Sojiro. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Once she entered the café and sat down at one of the booths, she opened her laptop to do her homework and to also do some “homework”.

“So, how was school today?” Sojiro asked.

“You know, same as usual. Got an A on my math test.” She replied, holding up the graded sheet.

He smiled “That’s good to hear. So, have you decided what high schools you want to apply for yet?”

“Uuugggghhhhhh.” She sighed while stretching herself across the table “No, not yet. I just started my last year of middle school; do I really need to have an answer right away?”

“I just think it’s important to have this sort of thing planned out from the start. Anyway, do you want some curry?”

She pushed herself back up again. “When have I not?”

He chuckled. “Coming right up.”

After sitting a while in the café, finishing her homework and eating her curry, she packed her stuff up and began leaving. But just as she was about to head out the door, Sojiro’s voice stopped her.

“Oh Futaba, take this with you.” He handed her a bag full of cans and tins of cat food.

“Got it. I’ll make Mona actually say thank you this time.” (Unlike last time where Morgana’s way of thanking Sojiro for feeding him was to pee on his blanket and then walk up to him with his chest puffed out, purring and expecting to be pet. Morgana’s a cute kitten, but he’s also a little shit who needs to be potty-trained.)

 

\---

 

This day was so far going horrible for Akira. But when has a day truly gone right for him in the past year and a half as a stray living on the streets?

First he was chased away from his hiding spot in the construction site by some very upset workers.

Then, as he was trying to find somewhere else to go, he was almost run over by a delivery truck, only managing to avoid being turned into a bloody mess on the street at the last second. Akira wasn’t normally careless enough to let that happen, but the reason he was was his third and current problem. He hadn’t eaten in days.

When Akira ran away from his hometown in the country to flee to the streets of Tokyo, he expected to have absolute freedom and to never have to worry about any of his past problems. While the last part came true, all that really happened was him exchanging his old problems for an equally bad set of new ones. Did he ever want to go back to the life he had before? Hell no! But at least there he had a roof over his head and his parents sometimes gave him a can of cheap cat food every day, when they were not complaining about the fact that their son was a “filthy beast”.

Like it was his fault that he was born as a were-beast!

His growling stomach dragging him back to an unpleasant reality, he began making his way through the alleyways of this part of Tokyo, which he hadn’t been to yet. It was called Yongen, he thinks. That’s what the announcer at the station called it, at least.

Wandering through the streets, he could feel the heat of the day slowly fading as the afternoon began turning into the evening. Eventually, he spotted a trash can. Going up to it, he could smell that there was some halfway decent meat amidst the garbage. He jumped and grabbed the edge of the bin with his front paws. And just as he hoped it would happen, his body weight was enough to tip it over, despite only being in his cat form.

Once that was done, he began digging through the trash to find what he was looking for. Unfortunately, once he found the meat, which was just a half-eaten chicken leg, he saw that the maggots had already staked their claim. The worst part about summer, besides the heat being difficult to bear (even with his summer fur) and the water shortages, was the fact that flies would lay their eggs on any and pretty much all leftovers and cadavers, making it much harder for strays like him to find food without getting sick. And just as Akira’s luck would have it, the season has only just begun.

Resigning himself to the fact that he would just have to look elsewhere, he wandered further down the alleyways to try and find even the tiniest scrap of something edible.

 

\---

 

Just as Futaba was turning the corner to Sojiro’s house, she saw a cat walking down the path, coming right towards her. Seeing her, it suddenly stopped moving, instead staring at her.

Getting a good look at it, she saw that it was a cat that was quite a bit older than Mona. It had very fluffy black fur, a rather long tail and fairly big grey eyes. But it also had a rather miserable look in its eyes and its body was worryingly skinny. Like, its ribcage was starting to show.

Taking note of that last point, she noticed that the kitty wasn’t actually looking at her; it was looking at the bag of cat food she was holding. Before she could do anything, it went up to her and stood up like a gopher, putting one of his paws on her leg for support and using the other one to try and tear open the bag from the bottom with his paws.

“N-No… bad kitty! These are for Mona! Shoo!” Futaba shouted, creeped out by the needy stray. As soon as she said those things, the cat’s eyes widened in fear in ways that Futaba didn’t think were possible for a cat. It quickly got off her, running away from her to hide behind some nearby boxes. It then poked its head out, its glassy grey eyes looking both scared out of its mind and also really sad.

Futaba then felt a strong twinge of guilt in her stomach. The kitty didn’t want to hurt her, it was just starving. Sojiro had warned her a few times about feeding stray cats on the streets, saying that it would only lead to excessive breeding and a subsequent spread of disease amongst them, only making the problem worse.

But after seeing the sad, pitiful look on its face, Futaba decided that Sojiro’s advice was stupid. She reached into the bag and got out one of the tins. Seeing the kitty’s eyes light up, she pulled off the top and flipped the tin upside-down, dumping the contents onto the ground.

The kitty quickly rushed up to it and quickly began eating the food in record speed. Futaba watched in amusement as the kitty totally pigged out. Once it was done, she and it just stared at each other.

“U-Um… hi…” Futaba said, completely unsure of how to act in this situation. But it seemed that the kitty didn’t know how to act either, as it just kept staring at her.

Before the awkwardness could continue any longer, a voice from the distance broke the silence.

“Futaba? What are you doing, standing there?” Sojiro said as he came walking towards her.

Futaba quickly and nervously turned to face in his direction. She quickly stuffed the empty tin in the bag, hoping he wouldn’t see it. She liked Sojiro, but she also didn’t want to get in trouble for not listening to him.

“I just saw a kitty here. Look!” But as she turned back to where the cat was before, she saw that it wasn’t there anymore. “Awww… it’s gone now!”

He chuckled. “I know you like cats, but we need to go home now. It’s getting late. Besides, Morgana’s waiting for us.”

 

\---

 

Catching his breath after running away, Akira didn’t know how to fell about what had just happened. Normally, he wouldn’t even have gone up to that human girl, given how every real human he had ever known had either hated him, was indifferent towards him, only saw his as useful due to his other powers or was scared of those powers.

But that orange haired girl didn’t seem to care at all. Taking the time to think about it, he quickly remembered that she probably thought that he was just an ordinary cat. Yeah, that must be it. Nobody who knew that he was a were-beast had ever treated him with the unconditional kindness that she had.

However, that left him with a dilemma on what he should do next. Should he try and get closer to that girl so that she keeps feeding him?

On the one hand, part of him felt bad for kind of lying to and deceiving her like he did. He knew that if that girl knew he wasn’t “just a cat”, she wouldn’t have been that nice to him.

On the other hand, deceiving one human was a small price to pay for his own survival. If his life on the streets had taught him one thing, it was that being soft more often than not resulted in death, so being cold to others was a necessity if you wanted to live. His luck could only get him so far, after all. And what purpose did his natural cuteness serve if not this?

Just then, his stomach began hurting. He really should not have eaten that much food in such a short time after starving so long. But when would he ever get another opportunity to be fed this much?

Realizing that his belly had already made the decision for him, he began using his superior sense of smell to try and find out where that girl lived.

 

\---

 

The next morning, Futaba was woken up when she felt something warm and wet touching her face and a light weight pressing down on her chest. Opening her eyes to see what it was, she saw a blurry shape of black, white, blue and yellow.

“Mona, it’s too early for me to get up and feed you. Let me sleep some more…” She then turned her body on its side to face the wall, forcing the cat to jump off her. But that didn’t do anything to deter the demon kitty, as she soon felt his paws patting her head, trying to get her up.

“ughn…. Ow ow ow…” She felt a sharp pain as Morgana had dug his claws into her uncombed hair and had begun pulling it. “I give up… I’ll feed you! Little demon…”

Proud that his efforts had won her over, Mona backed off. He began purring and licking his paw to celebrate his victory. When Futaba had managed to nag Sojiro into letting her have a cat, she hadn’t expected that the newest member of the Sakura family would be so much work and so demanding.

After getting up and feeding him, she tried to get some more sleep. But since that didn’t work out for her, she decided to watch videos on her phone. Eventually, she got up and went through her usual morning routine. But just as she stepped out through the front door, she saw something surprising:

Laying on top of one of the walls was the cat from yesterday, raising its head like he had just woken up from a nap.

“Kitty, what are you doing there? Sojiro’ll get mad if he sees you!” she shouted while also making sure it wasn’t loud enough for her dad to hear her.

Not seeming to care for the actual words of her remark, it jumped down from the wall and sat right in front of the gate, blocking her way out.

“Oh, so you’re gonna be an impassible roadblock that I can only clear by feeding you, huh? You’re almost as much of a little shit as Mona.”

The cat looked straight at her, its big grey eyes were just as focused on her as they were demanding.

“Meow.” Was what it said. Futaba had gained enough experience about cats with Mona to know that that meant “Feed me, now!”

Knowing that the cat would not accept no for an answer, she snuck back inside to grab a tin of food for the freeloading kitty. Thankfully, she didn’t run into Sojiro. Once she returned to the door, the cat’s eyes brightened up.

“I know you’re happy, but not here.” She led him a bit away from the house, before giving him the food in the same way she did yesterday. “Well, I have to go now.”

As she reached the station, she threw the empty tin in a trash can. While on the train to school, she thought about what to do about the situation with the kitty. Just before she had to get off to switch to the next train, she decided that she would keep stealthily feeding it in secret.

 

\---

 

“Sojiro, come on! Hurry hurry!” Futaba, who had gotten him up early on a Sunday morning, kept saying as she was dragging him through the hall to the door in every way except literally.

“H-Hey, slow down!  I’m not as young as I used to be.” He said as he tried to quickly put his shoes on.

“But if we don’t hurry, we’ll miss the early train and then we’ll have to wait in lines all day at the Featherman convention in Akihabara. I heard that Yukari Takeba will be there personally to give autographs. “ she said as she opened the door.

Once Sojiro followed her out of the house, however, he saw something he wasn’t expecting. Standing by Futaba’s feet was a cat, which was purring and rubbing its head against her legs.

“Futaba! What is this?” He asked, angrily.

“U-Um… this is…” Futaba stammered nervously as she looked at the ground. She picked up the cat, holding it tight against her chest. The cat in question just stared at him with his eyes wide open.

“I thought I told you not to feed any strays.”

“B-but… this guy was starving…” She always reacted this way when he scolded her.

“He looks fairly full to me.” He refuted.

“That’s now! Two weeks ago he was just skin clinging to bones! If I didn’t feed him, then who would’ve?! H-hey!” The cat began moving around in her arms, wanting to be let go.

“See… it wants to live on its own now.”

The cat managed to wriggle itself out of her arms. Once it hit the ground, it quickly ran away from them.

“N-no, kitty! Come back!” Futaba shouted. When the cat was no longer in their sights, she slouched over, dejected. “You scared him away…”

Sojiro put his hand on her shoulder. “Look, I know you wanted to help him out. But he’s not really in need of caring anymore. And if you really need to dote on a cat, we already have Morgana.”

Futaba looked like she was forcing herself not to cry. “I-I guess you’re right.”

“That’s good to hear. So, are we still going to Akihabara?”

She sniffed her nose. “Y-Yeah.”

 

\---

 

It was a stormy evening when it happened. Futaba and Sojiro were sitting in the living room, watching the newest episode of that anime that she had recently gotten into. They were drinking some coffee he had made when all of a sudden they heard nonstop meowing coming from somewhere.

Sojiro grumbled “Ugh. Futaba, go see what Morgana wants now…”

“R-Right…”

But before she could get up, Mona came waltzing into the room with a toy mouse in his mouth. He walked over to her and jumped up on the couch. Futaba moved onto the floor and grabbed the string that was attached to the mouse so Mona could play with it.

Just then, the meowing began starting up again.

“Morgana is here, so where could that howling be coming from?” Sojiro wondered.

“Wait a minute… Could it be?” Futaba quickly got off the floor and began rushing down the hall.

“H-hey… Futaba! Wait!” Sojiro shouted, taken back by his daughter’s sudden burst of movement.

Before his words could reach her, she was already at the door. Opening it in one swift motion, she saw exactly who she wanted to see. Sitting on the doorstep, soaking wet, was the same super fluffy kitty from before, looking up at her with his grey eyes wide open and super cute.

 

“Meow?”


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of thunder rumbling woke Akira up from his sleep. His body uncomfortable from sleeping on the cold hard ground, he lifted his head to look around and saw the storm clouds forming in the sky.

It had been three days since he ran away from the girl with the orange hair (Futaba, as he now knew she was called) and in that time he hadn’t really done much of anything other than go back to having a hard time finding food.

When he ran away from Futaba, he already felt conflicted about his actions. Even as he was running away he could hear her calling out to him. She seemed to have grown a liking to him during all those times she fed him. And as much as he didn’t really want to admit it, he had grown somewhat attached to her as well. She was the first other living being he had ever felt a strong affection for. As far as he could remember, the only time he ever had these sort of feelings was when he played with the stray cats who were always by the river near his hometown. It was because of this that he didn’t mind it at all when she started petting and picking him up during their regular feeding sessions.

But he knew that he couldn’t stay with her if her father didn’t want him around. That and he could tell from how their house smelled that they already had a cat of their own. And… did he really have the right to force himself upon an already complete household?

Although… did her father really feel that way? Yeah, he scolded his daughter for secretly feeding him, but Akira had run away before Futaba could fully give her defense of her actions. Was it possible that she could have convinced him to let him stay? Or was he just being desperately clingy to the first person who had been kind to him in a long time?

But what was the alternative? Continue starving on the streets while constantly questioning if he had lost a good opportunity at finding a source of food and shelter?

Akira thought about his situation for a while longer before reaching a conclusion. Having made up his mind on what to do, he began making his way back to where they lived.

 

\---

 

Sitting on the doorstep, he asked himself: Did he really want to do this?

Technically, he was actually leaving the decision to them. He would just sit there, show himself to them and let them decide what they wanted to do with him.

If they didn’t want him, which he could easily imagine happening, they’d probably just shoo him away and he could cleanly cut his ties with the girl.

If they did want him, well… it would be their decision and he wouldn’t have to feel guilty at all.

Finding the doorbell to be too high up for him to reach (He could do it if he turned back into his human form, but people would probably stare if they saw a naked boy there all of a sudden. Not that any human would want to go outside in this weather, but still.), he instead began meowing at the top of his tiny lungs. Akira knew that Futaba and her father were awake inside since he could hear them talking to each other and the TV running.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, he began meowing all over again.

Just as he was about to give up, he heard footsteps rapidly approaching the door. And then he saw Futaba opening the door in one swift motion. He lifted his head and looked up at her. Seeing the smile on her face, he decided to meow at her like he did many times before.

“Kitty! You’re back!” She said, overjoyed.

She picked him up under his front legs and then held him against her chest, hugging him tightly. She then pushed him away from her.

“You’re all wet.” Looking at her clothes, he saw the dark spot on her top where she had hugged him. “And why do you smell like you’ve been bathing in a dumpster?”

“Meow” was all the response he felt like giving to that question. Fortunately, his leftover luck ensured that he didn’t have to try anything else at the moment.

“Futaba?” her father asked her as he approached the doorway. “What are you doing? Wait… isn’t that the cat from the other day?”

Her face lit up like a kid in a candy store “Yep. Seems he wants to be here. So can I keep him, please? I promise I’ll be extra responsible with him!”

He sighed. “I’m not going to be able to say no to this, am I? Come on, let’s get you inside before you catch a cold and get him dried off. We can talk about this then.”

Carrying him back inside with her, Futaba moved quickly to the bathroom. After she put him down on the floor, Akira watched as she got one of the towels. He was startled when she wrapped him in it in a speed that he didn’t think she possessed.

 

\---

 

As Futaba was drying the kitty off, Sojiro came into the bathroom.

“So, ummm….” She trailed off. Just what was she supposed to say? Why isn’t there a players-guide for this sort of thing?

“Look, I’m not going to yell at you or anything. I’m not happy that you were feeding a stray behind my back even though I told you not to.”

Futaba looked down. “Sorry…”

“But… um… I’m not opposed to keeping him.” He then took on a firmer posture as he looked directly at the new cat. “As long as he behaves himself, that is.”

“Really?” Futaba’s eyes went wide.

“Yes, really.”

“Thanks, Sojiro!” She hugged his legs.

For a moment, his mouth formed into a smile. His face then went back to grump-mode. “But if you keep him, the pay for his food will have to come out of your pocket. Oh, and no more feeding strays from now on. Two cats are more than enough.”

“Deal.” She said, knowing full well that he’d probably end up paying for all of it anyway. Sojiro might act tough, but he was a big softie underneath it all. Shifting her attention back to the now dry kitty, she picked it up and put it on her lap. And once the petting started again, so did the purring.

“By the way, what should we name it? Since you wouldn’t let me rename Morgana when we got him.” He asked, grumbling at the last part.

“Mona and I already told you last time that Prince was a bad name.” She replied, remembering the laughing fit she had when Mona hissed at every single one of Sojiro’s attempts to rename him.

“I still think it’s better than leaving him with a girl’s name.” he mumbled.

“Meow.”

Quickly turning their heads at the sound of the voice, they saw Mona standing in the doorway. He looked curious at the sight of the bigger kitty. Futaba then put the new kitty, who was just staring at Morgana, down on the floor. The bigger cat then ran behind her, seemingly scared of the smaller one.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to be scared.” Said Futaba as she picked up the larger cat and put it closer to Morgana. Mona moved his head forward, sniffing at the new and unfamiliar scent. The big kitty stared as Morgana went closer to him. Mona raised himself up on his back legs and raised his front legs in the air, trying to seem big and intimidating. The new cat didn’t seem fazed at all by this gesture, instead just continuing to stare. Morgana then began running closer to the other cat (Futaba then realized that she should probably think up an actual name for the cat before Sojiro did.) and began swinging one of his paws at him. The bigger cat just stared while Mona did his thing.

And then, in a sudden flash that Futaba and Sojiro barely caught, Mona was next to the other cat, pawing at the tail. Before they knew it, Morgana was playing with the tail like it was a cat toy. The other cat didn’t seem as scared of him anymore, instead moving it around so Mona could better play with it.

“I think they like each other.” Sojiro said, smirking.

“Yep. Joker has joined the party.” Then she mimicked a victory fanfare.

Sojiro looked surprised. “Joker? Is that what you want to call him?”

“Yep again.”

“Why that name?” he asked.

“It’s because they look almost the same, like a set piece. So I figured that they should also have matching names. So, Mona and Joka it is!” she explained.

“You’re not going to let me change it, now that you’ve made up your mind, huh?”

She raised a finger in the air. “Nope.”

“Fine… H-hey!” Sojiro’s grumbling session was cut short as Mona ran over Sojiro’s feet to follow Joker, who had run out of the bathroom. Futaba got up off the floor to follow them. Once she had caught up, she saw Joker using the litterbox that they had put for Mona in the hall, but he never felt like using.

“Well at least one of them is already potty trained.”

“Gah!” Futaba turned around, completely caught off guard. She then pouted. “Sojiro! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

Sojiro chuckled. “Got you this time. “ He then raised a hand to his chin while looking at Joker. “But… Does this mean that he was somebody’s pet before?”

Futaba hadn’t thought of that. Although… she hadn’t really thought of where the cat came from in the first place. She had just assumed that it… existed and just left it at that. “So somebody had him before us and then kicked him out? That’s sad…” she looked down for a moment before looking up again. “But that might mean that he’s chipped and I can find the bank account of whoever did something like that and get back at them.”

Sojiro looked angry. “Futaba…” he said in a stern voice “You’re not going to do that again!” Before she could come up with a reply to that comment, she saw that he looked confused. “Hm… What the…?”

She looked down to see what he was looking at. Joker was scratching himself with his hind leg.

“He has fleas… great…” Sojiro looked annoyed. Was that what that meant? Futaba thought that that was just a thing that cats and dogs just do for the sake of doing it. _Looks like I need to raise my knowledge stat for cat behavior_. He then sighed. “Well, if we’re going to keep him we’ll need to take him to the vet anyway. By the way, where is he going to be sleeping?” Sojiro asked.

“Well if he has fleas I don’t want him sleeping in my room…”

 

\---

 

Making himself comfortable on the pile of towels that had been placed on the floor for him in the bathroom, Akira took a moment to look around. It was already dark enough that a human wouldn’t be able to see much, even with the window providing a source of light, but with his cat eyes he could see perfectly fine. It felt weird to him, laying out in the middle of an open area like this, where others could come in at any given moment. Most of his previous sleep spots had been in places that were either tight or where he was sure that nobody but him could and/or would get to.

But now that the others (aside from Mona, but he was a special case to begin with) had gone to bed, Akira decided to think over everything that had just happened.

Akira was honestly glad that they had decided to take him in. Mostly because it meant that he’d be free of starvation for an indefinite period of time. But a small part of him was also glad because he had grown to kinda like Futaba. Although thinking about it, he wasn’t sure if it was only because she fed him and pet him. After all, he couldn’t really think of any “real” humans that he was ever truly close to during his time living as one.

He shook his head. That didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was what would happen to him tomorrow. The father had said that he would have to be taken to the vet for his flea problem, which he had honestly gotten kind of used to, and a general check-up to see if he had heart worms or something. Akira stopped paying attention once it got into a bunch of medical terms, instead continuing to play with their cat. But at least he didn’t have a chip, so they won’t be able to find where he lived before. And visits to the vet were, as long as needles weren’t involved, honestly just a matter of waiting for it to be over already more than anything else.

 _I mean, what are they going to do? Neuter me?_  He thought sarcastically.

But… as strange as the thought sounded to him, he was feeling like he was looking forward to tomorrow. At least, that’s what he thinks his current feeling is. He had gotten so used to just having his survival instincts be his motive to see another day that he wasn’t sure just how to deal with this emotion.

_Eh, I should probably just try and get some rest. Thinking about it now won’t help anything._

He then fell asleep. Akira did not notice the other cat climbing on top of him once he was in his slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm surprised at how much support the first part of this story has gotten.  
> Thank you all so much.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING:  
> At one point in this chapter, something called a 'dream box' is mentioned. Some of you, not knowing what that is, might try and look it up. Be warned though, that what you'll find is rather graphic and disturbing. Seriously, I found out about it a few days ago and I'm still a little messed up.  
> Fortunately, it doesn't actually show up in the chapter itself, and you can read it without knowing what it is. I just wanted to warn you in advance in case you do try to look it up.
> 
> Also, this chapter features some OC's but they're there to serve some worldbuiling purposes and won't end up taking over the story or anything like that.

Sojiro was woken up by the sound of cars in the distance. _Why is there so much traffic this early?_ he thought while upset that he lost quite a bit of sleep before he had to get the café ready. He then sighed. _No point weeping over spilled milk._ Sojiro thought as he got out of his bed.

When Sojiro opened the door to the bathroom, he was surprised by the sight of two cats laying on a pile of towels. So what happened yesterday wasn’t a dream… huh. He really did let Futaba adopt a stray as their second pet.

He was mildly surprised, though. Not because of… Joker, was it? (He was still internally a little upset that they now had two cats which he didn’t get to name.) No. That furball was still sleeping on top of the pile of towels, right where they had left him yesterday. What surprised him was that Morgana was just laying on top of the bigger cat. While Morgana would usually just sleep wherever he wanted, it was never with him or Futaba. Unless he was in their lap and they were petting him.

Both of them were still asleep, and while they were slightly moving in their sleep, they didn’t seem like they would wake up anytime soon. Silently making his way to the toilet without making any loud noises, he tried to do his business without waking the cats. And it worked. But once he flushed the toilet, the sound of the water ruined his plan. Both of their head shot up at the exact same time. Their eyes were wide and staring at him, almost unblinking.

After a moment passed and they decided he wasn’t worth looking at anymore, Morgana got up off of Joker. The smaller cat then snuggled up against the larger one, licking him and purring loudly. Joker, on the other hand, seemed to rather enjoy the attention he was being given, putting one of his front legs over Morgana in a sort of protective gesture.

Morgana seemed to get tired of it after a while and then ran out of the room.

Sojiro followed Morgana out of the bathroom. Even though the cat was no longer in his sight, he knew exactly where it had gone to. Hearing the meowing starting up again, his expectations for how the situation would turn out were confirmed. Sojiro then went to the door to Futaba’s bedroom, which was thankfully closed. He had told her to shut it so that Joker wouldn’t come into it and drag any of his fleas with him. And because the door was closed and Morgana always wanted to be fed by her in the morning, he resorted to his favorite method of getting attention: meowing nonstop.

Back when Futaba and Sojiro first saw Morgana, who at that point was still far too young to be away from his mother, he stood out from the rest of the litter by being by far the noisiest cat of them all. And considering how much noise hungry, attention-seeking newborns are capable of making, that’s saying a lot. When Futaba had picked him as the cat she wanted, Sojiro was secretly hoping that Morgana’s noisiness was just a temporary thing and that he would eventually grow out of it. Apparently not.

As it turned out, meowing was one of Morgana’s three favorite activities, alongside sleeping and stealing food. The kitten would, whenever he was awake and not occupied with something else, make non-stop noise until he either got what he wanted or got tired of it.

Just then, the door to Futaba’s room opened. Futaba was standing there, with slight bags under her eyes and a bad case of bedhead. “Mona, I’m up now. You can go into snooze mode now.” She said sleepily. She then looked up. “Oh, hey Sojiro…”

“Good morning, Futaba.” He said. He watched as Morgana rubbed his head against Futaba’s foot, which was one of his ways of letting them know he was hungry.

“Mornin’…” she muttered. While they were walking to the kitchen, Morgana stopped and scratched himself with one of his back legs.

“What the…? Him too?” Sojiro asked. So now he had two cats with fleas. Just great. Thinking about it though, it shouldn’t have been a surprise, since he’d been sleeping on top of a fleabag all night.

“Hmm, what is it?” Futaba asked, still not fully awake. She looked down. “Did he catch the fleas from Joker?”

“Seems so…” They continued walking to the kitchen.

“But how did that happen? We left Joker in the bathroom.”

“When I went there, I found Morgana sleeping on top of him. My guess is that he’s been there the entire night.” Sojiro explained.

“Does that mean that we need to take both of them to the vet?” Futaba asked as she began preparing two bowls of cat food. Before she could, however, Sojiro stopped her.

“Don’t give Joker any food. Just some water.”

“Huh? Why?” She asked.

“You’re not supposed to feed cats before they have their blood tested.” He explained.

“Really? Guess I’m more underleveled in cat expertise that I thought.” Futaba then fed them the way he told her to. Once she did that and got up again, she asked “So we’re actually going to take them to the vet today? Sucks that you won’t be able to open Leblanc this morning.”

“I guess so- wait… what do you mean we?” Sojiro could tell where Futaba was trying to take this conversation. And he didn’t like it.

“I’m coming with you to the vet.”

He crossed his arms. “Futaba, no.“

“Futaba yes.”

He sighed in annoyance. “You have school today.”

She then stomped her foot on the ground. “Can’t I just skip school for today and come with you? Please?”

“No.”

“Oh come on. Why do I have to go? I’m already at the top of my class in every subject wellexeptPEbutwhocaresaboutthatone so can I not go? Just for today?” She begged.

Sojiro groaned. Why did this have to turn out to be exactly the pain he thought it would be? He put on his stern face. “Futaba… What did I say to you when I approved of Morgana as a pet?”

“To regularly change his litter box…”

“And…”

“And to keep him from tearing up the furniture…”

“And…”

Futaba finally resigned herself to what she knew was coming. “And to be on my good behavior…”

Sojiro then smiled in relief. It was good to know that he was still able to put his foot down and keep his daughter in line when needed. “You can see them again when you get home. They’ll still be here.”

“Uh huh...” Clearly still reluctant, she went back to her room. Seeing Morgana trying to follow her, Sojiro quickly picked him up and firmly held the kitten in his hands.

“Oh no you don’t…” The kitten squirmed a bit before settling down. Joker, meanwhile, was just lying on the floor, staring at a fly that had somehow gotten inside before he scratched himself with his leg again. _Note to self: Make sure the flea problem will be the first thing the vet deals with._ Sojiro thought as he picked up the other cat. “Get up you fleabag…” Unlike Morgana, Joker just let himself be picked up without any resistance.

Carrying them both in his arms, he went back to his room to properly dressed. On his way there Sojiro tossed the both of them back into the bathroom for the time being. After closing the door behind him and making his way to his room, he thought about what to do with Morgana. He knew he couldn’t just leave Morgana home alone now that he has fleas. Should he let Takemi take care of him while he was at the vet? No, she’s probably busy and probably wouldn’t approve of cats in her clinic.

Thinking about it for a while, he decided that he might as well just take Morgana with him. Better to keep an eye on him rather than let him drag his fleas everywhere in the house. He could only hope that their single cat carrier would be big enough for the both of them.

 

\---

 

Squashed with Morgana in a cat carrier in the back seat of the fa-Sojiro’s car (he’d have to make sure to remember that name if he wanted to live with them.), Akira tried to look around and see out the windows. But he quickly gave up on it. Most of his view to the front was blocked by the seats and looking out of the windows to the sides would require him to move forward and push Morgana to the back. And he didn’t feel like doing that.

He also didn’t feel like trying to just listen to what was on the radio. The instance that Sojiro had turned it on, Akira had been forced to be once again subjected to the station that played those stupid old songs that his grandmother always listened to. Joy…

Luckily though, Morgana gave him something else to keep himself entertained during the car ride. Akira watched in amusement as the family cat just would not stop meowing. And it was almost as if the cat was just using any reason it could find to make noise. Bump in the road? Meow. Sharp curve? Meow. Stopping at a red light? Meow. It also drowned out the sound of the radio, which was a plus. Even more so when Sojiro finally turned that noise machine off because of it. Eventually, Akira got some quiet when it seemed that they would be on straight and narrow roads for a while. But after only a few moments, the noise started up again. It was at this point that Akira just assumed that the cat just liked being loud for the sake of being loud.

“Morgana… I know you hate being cooped up in there. But I can’t let you out until we reach the vet.” Sojiro said, his voice making his annoyance very clear.

As Akira continued to watch Morgana continue doing his thing, he took the time to relax and think.

He wasn’t worried about the vet finding out about his true nature. While any doctor worth their salt (or in some cases anyone with a halfway decent understanding of the human body) could tell the difference between a were-beast in their human form and a “real” human, when the were-beast was in their animal form it was impossible to tell. At least, from an anatomical perspective. Which thankfully includes blood tests. The only way he could give himself away was if he acted too much unlike a cat or did something really stupid, like talking in his cat form. And the latter actually requires a conscious effort on his part to pull off.

Akira internally laughed a dry laugh. This was really happening, wasn’t it? At this time yesterday he was roaming the streets without a home, looking for food. And now he was on his way to become this family’s second pet. That small part of him that felt bad for manipulating them resurfaced. But all it ended up doing was filling the rest of him with doubts as to whether he would be able to actually pull it off. Because he knew that if he messed up, it would just be back to the streets for him.

He pushed that part of him aside. Best not to think about it. Pretending to be a “real” cat couldn’t be too hard. He’d just do what he was doing before and when in doubt, do as Mona does. Since after all, who better to teach him to act like a cat than a real cat?

He was jerked out of his thoughts when the car suddenly stopped. Had they already made it to the vet?

It would seem so, as Sojiro then turned the engine off and got out. As he picked up the cat carrier and Morgana was knocked down, Akira internally hoped there wouldn’t be any needles.

 

\---

 

When Sojiro was finally called into the office and put down the carrier, Morgana immediately came running out of it. After greeting him, the vet looked at the kitten curiously and then asked “So what brings you here today? Did Morgana eat something he shouldn’t have?”

“Actually it’s not him per se.” Sojiro was dreading having to explain this part. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to avoid it, he reached inside the carrier and got Joker out, who looked almost bored.

“Futaba decided to adopt this one on her own. She told me that she found him on the streets and that he’s been getting close to her when she kept feeding him. And yesterday she let him into the house.” Sojiro explained to the vet.

The vet stared at him for a moment before speaking. “Wouldn’t it be better if he was taken to a shelter instead?”

“Can’t you just give him an examination and see what his health is? Or at least see if he’s chipped? I would much rather not have to leave him there and then have him not find a home if it can be avoided.” Sojiro replied.

Despite not wanting to think about that possibility, he couldn’t deny that it existed. He just tried to push it out of his mind and keep this unpleasant reality away from Futaba. After what had happened with Wakaba, the thought of Futaba growing attached to an animal only for it to be sent off to a shelter and potentially ending up in a dream box was almost unbearable for him.

Fortunately, the vet also seemed to understand the implications of his words, as she just sighed and said “Let me take a look at him.” After he handed Joker to her, she held a machine near his neck. After a while she said “Well he’s not chipped, so it might be alright to keep him. But first he needs an examination. Tell me, has he shown any strange behavior or anything otherwise unusual?”

“Other than signs of fleas, which he seems to have passed onto Morgana, nothing. He’s also already litter-trained and seems to be well behaved.” Sojiro said. Best not to withhold these details from the vet.

“Alright then. Let’s start with the physical examination.” Sojiro silently watched her as she continued her examination by checking his heart beat, taking a close look at his mouth, eyes, ears and paws, while Joker was rather still and just let her do her work. He was the complete opposite of Morgana, who would just constantly squirm and try to either snuggle or play with the vet.

After that she put him on the scale to weigh him. “He’s a little on the skinny side, but otherwise fairly healthy. I’d say that he’s somewhere between a year and a year and a half old, so he’s probably going to have to be fixed.”

She then put him back up on the examination table and lifted up his tail to get a better look at his… rectum and genitalia. Sojiro’s gaze turned toward the window. He did not want to have to look at that, at all.  After a while he heard her get up and say “Well, there’s no anal infection.  He’s also definitely not feral.”

“What do you mean?” He came here to see how Joker was doing not to get a cryptic lecture.

“He’s already been neutered.” She stated.

Oh. Well that definitely proves he was somebody’s pet before. Although… wait… what kind of owner has their cat fixed but not chipped? Eh, best not to think about that right now.

“I see. Is there anything else that needs to be done with him?” he asked.

“All we’d need to do now is to have his blood tested and then have him chipped. Oh, and he needs his shots too. Which ones he needs depend on how the blood test turns out. After that I can prescribe some flea medication for you.”

Okay, that was good. The sooner he gets this done with the sooner he can get back to running the café.

Turning back to look at Joker, Sojiro saw the cat shrinking in on itself. As the vet called for her assistant, Joker’s eyes were darting in all directions, never staying still, unlike his head. His tail also would not stay still, flopping around like a fish out of water. After doing that for a while, his eyes looked up at Sojiro. He felt a little bad for the cat. His guess was that Joker had probably been to the vet before and ended up kind of shell shocked from the experience.

Oh well, this has to be done.

 

\---

 

 _Why did the easy part of the vet visit have to be so short?_ Akira thought as he heard them mentioning the words “blood test”. _And what god made it so that it could only be done by sticking sharp, painful needles in him?_

His body tensing up, he began to look around the room for a place to hide or a way to run.

The door? It was closed. The window? Firmly shut. Under the desk? He was too big.

Realizing that he couldn’t hide or escape, he instead looked up at Sojiro, hoping the sad gaze in his eyes would move him in some way. While the man’s expression slightly changed, it didn’t seem to actually work.

 _Oh no. Will I actually have to be put through this?_ Akira thought as the reality of the situation slowly but firmly sank into him.

Despite the growing anxiety in his stomach, Akira managed to hold himself still as the vet’s assistant held him tight.

He held himself still as his head was lifted up.

He held himself still as the vet shaved off a patch of his fur, exposing the skin of his neck.

He even managed to hold himself still as the vet brushed the fur away and sprayed what he guessed was disinfectant on his bare skin.

But when he saw that the vet had a needle in her hand and brought it closer to him, that’s when he lost it. The memories of that day were returning to him. The memory of how both his father and the vet assistant held him down, the memory of how the vet just shoved the needle in his arm, the memory of… of…

He began struggling, trying to break free. But all that caused was the vet assistant to hold him even tighter. His brain panicking and losing all responsiveness to his own input as well as the world around him, he instinctively resorted to the only thing he could at the moment: growling.

And then, in an instant, the needle was in. _Phew._ Even though the needle was a little uncomfortable, the feeling of relief he got from knowing that the awful part was finally behind him was amazing. His heart was still beating a little too fast, but the shock was steadily leaving his system.

After continuing to hold himself still while the vet did her work, he immediately ran back to the cat carrier and hid himself in the back of it once she was done. Turning his ears forward, he listened to what they had to say now.

“How long will it take for the results to come?” Sojiro asked.

“About fifteen to twenty minutes. In the meantime I guess we can look over Morgana, while we wait for the results. Once we have them, we’ll know which shots he needs.” The vet said.

 _I guess all I can do is wait and see what happens._ Akira thought.

Curling himself up into a ball, Akira let himself take a cat nap. Quite a while passed before he heard the vet say something that caught his attention.

“Sakura-san, could you get him, please? He needs his shots now.”

_Oh no…_

 

\---

 

“About fifteen to twenty minutes. In the meantime I guess we can look over Morgana, while we wait for the results. Once we have them, we’ll know which shots he needs.” The vet said.

“Alright, I’ll get him.” Sojiro replied.

_Wait a minute… where did Morgana go?_

Looking inside the cat carrier, and then around the office, he couldn’t see the kitten anywhere.

Eventually, Sojiro found him on one of the shelves on the wall, hiding behind various bottles of pills.

“Oh for the love of… How did you get up there?” Sojiro complained as he got Morgana down from there. But not, unfortunately, without some of the bottles being knocked over.

Turning to face the other two people in the room, Sojiro apologized for Morgana’s behavior. The cat in question just let out a meow before squirming restlessly in his hands.

“It’s not a problem.” The vet said as she chuckled at the sight in front of her.

As the assistant picked up the bottles and put them back, Sojiro handed Morgana over to the vet. The cat in question snuggled up against her, purring loudly.

“My… you have grown, haven’t you?” The vet trailed off as she put the kitten down on the table and began examining him.

As he watched her do her work, occasionally answering her questions, Sojiro hoped that Morgana’s sneaking off wouldn’t become a bigger problem.

 

\---

 

When it was finally time for lunch, Futaba wasted no time going to the bathroom in the far back of the hall. And thankfully, her favorite stall, the one in the far back of the room, was still unoccupied.

 “Aaaahhhh… sweet release!” she said as she took off her school shoes and socks. She then pulled her legs up and wiggled her toes for a bit before gripping the edge of the seat with them like a bird. Now in her most comfortable position, she pulled out her phone.

“Can’t eat raisins, chocolate or onions… Man, they’re missing out on a lot…” Futaba mumbled while looking at an article on cats. After what had happened yesterday and this morning, Futaba had made it her personal challenge to learn everything there is to know about cats all within the span of a day, and if not that then by the end of this week. She had even put that task on her latest promise list, right underneath unboxing and arranging her new Feathermen figurines and checking if Okumura Foods was committing tax fraud.

As she continued to read the article and become more and more engrossed by it, she barely heard some other girls talking in the distance.

“HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT THAT?!” one of them suddenly shouted from nearby, startling Futaba. After recovering from the shock, she decided to listen in on whatever the heck that just was.

“That doesn’t really matter right now. We’re talking about you here, not me. Oh don’t give me that look…” That girl said in a manner which was supposed to sound endearing but rather came across as condescending, which Futaba suspected was the actual intention. “I know you just love being the center of the spotlight, don’t you?”

The second girl scoffed. “Please. You’re just jealous that I’m a much better singer than you! Just accept that fact already!”

“Accept it?! Why in hell should I accept that I’ve had my hard earned place as the music club’s top singer taken away from me by some birdbrain who has never had to work for anything in her life?!” The first girl sounded too close to exploding for Futaba’s comfort.

“You know what?! I’m not going to stay here and listen to this crap coming out of your mouth any longer, Yamagata.” The second girl sounded like she was going to leave, but as the door started to creak from being opened, Yamagata just laughed.

“Leaving me like this, are you? Well then, I guess I just have to tell everyone aaalllllll about your dirty little secret, now don’t I, Uta-chan?”

“Y-You w-wouldn’t…” Uta stammered, and Futaba was nervous by this whole thing even though she wasn’t involved.

“Why wouldn’t I? I’m sure people would just love to know that one of the students is a filthy were-beast. I’d only be doing this school a favor. In fact... I could just share this on the student forum. Right… now…”

“No! Please don’t!” She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

“Cry all you want, you filthy were-canary. I’m not going to stop doing the right thing because of your disgusting sobbing, you piece of inhuman garbage!”

“Please! Don’t! I’ll do anything!”

“Anything you say…” There was an uncomfortably long pause. “You know what? I’ll be lenient and take you up on that offer. There is one thing that I’d like you to do.”

“What is it?”

“Quit the music club. You do that, and I’ll hold off on exposing how awful you are to the rest of the school.”

“But… the music club is all that I have…”

“Well you should have thought of that before you stole my spot in it. So what’ll it be? Keep your undeserved position as the star of the music club or keep the others in the dark about the fact that you’re a monster?”

“Th-This is blackmail! Yamagata… you’re horrible!”

“Answer my question!”

There was a pause before Uta answered. “I’ll quit it…”

“Glad you could see things my way and accept the kindness of my heart.”

“Kindness of your heart?! You’re so full of shit!”

“Uh uh uh… You know what’ll happen if you try and hit me. And I don’t just mean me calling the F.B.E.A. on you.”

“Tch…”

“Oh, and you also know what’ll happen if you tell anyone, especially the teachers, about this.”

“R-right…”

Once she heard Yamagata leaving, Futaba also heard Uta lock herself in one of the other stalls and cry. Slowly getting up and leaving her own stall, Futaba stood still in front of the door. Just as she was about to say something, she froze up as she realized she had no idea what to say in this situation.

_Why do people skills have to be my dump stat?_

After begrudgingly leaving the stalls and going back out into the hall, Futaba saw one of her teachers, Miss Tokuda, on her way back to her class room. Maybe she could tell her about what she just heard. It’s worth a try, at least.

Forcing her anxiety down, Futaba went up to her and said “Umm… excuse me, Tokuda-sensei…” _Why does this have to be so hard?_

“What is it?” The teacher said with an annoyed look on her face.

“Well… it’s just… there’s this girl who’s being bullied…” Futaba mumbled.

Miss Tokuda just sighed in annoyance. “Sakura-chan, if someone’s being bullied they should come to the teacher themselves instead of you tattling on the students.”

“But…” Before she could say anything else, the bell signaling the end of the lunch break rang. Hearing it, Miss Tokuda just left with a half-hearted good bye.

_What a bitch…_

As Futaba reluctantly went back to class and she ignored what the teacher was saying, she thought over how she could complete this sidequest.

Maybe she could try and tell another teacher about this. It’s worth a try, at least.

_And if it doesn’t work I’m sure I’ll find a way to solve this with my hacking._

 

\---

 

Standing in front of the pet store, Futaba braced herself for her new solo mission. Going through the sliding doors, Futaba was immediately greeted by the odd smells that every pet store seemed to come with.

_Alright, time to do this._

Her first goal: Go to the section where the collars were.

When she got there, however, she saw that they were too high up for her to reach. Even standing on her toes and swiping at them with her hand in the same way that Mona does when he tries to steal her food didn’t net her any results.

 _Why did the collars have to be so high up? And why do I have to be so short?_ Futaba thought, annoyed. After unsuccessfully trying to reach for them a few more times, she instead looked around to see if someone could help her.

Sure enough, she saw a teenage employee restocking the sacks of dry dog food.

_Okay, Futaba. You can do this. You’re not bothering her. You’re asking her for help. And giving you help is what she’s being paid for. You’re not being rude…_

“Umm… excuse me…” Futaba said, nervously.

“What is it?” she asked, with some slight irritation in her tone.

“I need some help.” Futaba said, pointing at the collars.

The employee sighed before putting down what she was doing and going over there.

“Which one do you want?” the girl asked, her tone making it clear to Futaba that she wanted to get back to her work.

_Oh great, a quick time event… Think Futaba, think…_

When she had let Sojiro pick out Mona’s collar, he had gone with the yellow one, claiming it would look good on him. Which it did. But it didn’t seem like yellow was the right color for Joker. So which one was?

Eying the various colors for a while, Futaba eventually made her choice.

“That one.” She said, pointing to the bright red one. It seemed like the best choice with his fur.

“Fine…” she sighed in relief before reaching up and getting it.

_Alright, step one complete!_

After the girl gave it to her and she said thanks, Futaba went over to the pay desk.

Wordlessly putting it on the counter, Futaba waited for the clerk to notice her. And once he did, his face looked just like Sojiro’s when he goes through an entire day in the café without any customers.

“Would you like a tag for it as well?” the clerk asked, his voice doing little to hide his boredom. It sounded like he was reading it off a script but not even trying at that.

“Yep.” Futaba quipped, wanting to get this over with just as fast as he did.

“Which one?” he asked, showing her a sample of the tags they sold.

 _Now which one should I get?_ Futaba thought before looking her options over one by one.

_The round one? Too boring._

_The heart-shaped one? Too girly._

_The cat shaped one? Too tacky._

_The fish shaped one? Cute, but we already got that one for Mona…_

_The bone shaped one? Wait, that’s for dogs…_

_The paw shaped one? No…_

_No…_

_No…_

_N-_

“Ooh. That one!” Futaba exclaimed, pointing at the tag of her choice.

“Would you like the tag to be engraved as well?” the clerk asked after getting one of those tags out from under the counter.

“Yes.” Futaba immediately stated, not even considering any other dialogue option. And she already knew just how she wanted it to be engraved…

 

\---

 

Sitting on the train to Yongen, Futaba got out the new collar for Joker. She used that time to take a closer look at the tag’s engraving. On the front side was ジョーカー in bold Katakana, on the back was “JOKER” in all caps.

It wasn’t the engraving of Joka, which she had told the clerk that she wanted, but it was still kind of neat. Although, she didn’t know if the name of a playing card really fit her new kitty.

And it wasn’t anywhere near as hilarious as when the shop engraved “MOANER” instead of “MONA” on Morgana’s tag. Futaba will never forget the day when she googled that word out of boredom and found out what it really meant. The best/worst/whatever-est part about it is that it actually fits perfectly for him. It’s just a shame that they had to take the tag off of the collar because he wouldn’t stop playing with it.

Would Joker do the same thing? She wondered.

 

 _The next stop is… Yongen-Jaya._ _The next stop is… Yongen-Jaya.  Please exit on the left._

 

Oh well, she’d just have to wait and see what’ll happen.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glad I managed to get this done when I did and I don't have to worry about an almost completed chapter waiting on my laptop, begging to be finished. Because for the next two weeks, I'm going to be on vacation.
> 
> In the mean time, I have a little game for you:  
> See if you can correctly guess what the acronym F.B.E.A. stands for.


	4. Chapter 4

When Futaba came home from school, she began heading to her room. As she stopped by the living room on her way there, she saw Mona napping on the tatami mat. He was lying down on his side, with his legs stretched out towards the sofa. It was cute how his stomach slowly moved up and down.

“’sup, you little shit?” Futaba said as she knelt down next to him.

At the sound of her voice, Mona’s eyes slightly opened. They then shut again as he stretched himself out.

“Somebody’s tired. Did all that napping tire you out?” Futaba pulled out her best cutesy voice as she pinched his cheeks.

It didn’t take long before he was fully awake after that. Annoyed that he wasn’t allowed to sleep any longer, he pawed her hands away from his face. Once he was free, he quickly ran under the couch.

Futaba was about to get up and go to her room, but was stopped when she heard purring coming from where Mona went. Going over to the couch and lying down on the floor, Futaba used the light from her phone to see what was going on under there.

To her surprise, she saw Mona rubbing his head against Joker, who was curled up tightly into a ball. As Futaba tried to put her arm underneath the couch to reach him, he lifted his head, turned his ears back, and let out a very low growl.

Scared, Futaba quickly pulled back. With her dim light, she saw Joker get up and move even further back. Mona, who was currently in clueless mode, quickly followed, tightly pressing himself up against the bigger cat, purring again.

“Nice to know who’s your favorite…” Futaba sarcastically grumbled.

Now feeling slightly annoyed, Futaba lifted herself back up and sat down on the sofa. Her attention turning towards her phone, she began texting Sojiro.

 

_[Futaba] Why is Joker napping under the couch?_

_[Futaba] And why is he so grumpy?_

_[Sojiro] He’s still down there?_

_[Futaba] What do you mean?_

_[Sojiro] When we came back from the vet, he decided the couch was his new home now._

_[Sojiro] Wouldn’t even come out when I tried to feed him._

_[Futaba] And why is he being such a little stinker right now?_

_[Sojiro] I’m not sure. My guess is that he didn’t like getting all those shots at the vet._

_[Sojiro] Look, just leave him alone for now. He’ll feel better soon enough._

_[Sojiro] Besides, don’t you have homework to do?_

 

Sighing as she put her phone away, Futaba decided that Joker could just get his collar later, if he was being this moody.

Once she arrived at her room and tossed her bag on her bed, Futaba thought about what she should do. Her options were unboxing her new Featherman figurines, hacking into the company files for Okumura foods, or trying and seeing what she could do about the blackmail case at her school.

Her gaze went to her computer, then to the figurines, then back to the computer, then back to the figurines.

 _Eh… I can just unbox them later…_ Futaba thought, shifting her attention back to her computer. She waited for what felt longer than how long her computer usually takes to start up. Once it did, however, she immediately got to work. Or rather, just finishing the initial preparations.

_My IP’s hidden… the connection’s being rerouted through various servers… aaaannnddd… I’m ready!_

“Nyeh heh heh… Now where should I start?” Futaba cackled as she cracked her knuckles.

_You know what… I think I’ll start with taking on that thing from school first. Not entirely sure how to go about this, but I think I’ll just start by cracking the school’s internal network._

But just as she tried to get into the network, she was blocked.

_So they changed the password, huh? No biggie. I’ll just run a brute force program while I focus on Okumura Foods instead._

However, as she began her work of cracking, the world around Futaba faded into a blur. She became increasingly focused on her work, as she dug through the history of the company’s financial transactions.

Finding various unsettling leads about how the company was cutting expenses in all the wrong ways (such as withholding funds for sanitation, docking the pay for numerous employees, purchasing subpar ingredients, etc.), Futaba quickly had plenty of material to expose. But since she was currently on a roll, she decided to dig through some of the company’s other files to see what else would turn up.

The minutes turned to hours as she remained completely focused on her work, with everything that wasn’t it being utterly irrelevant to her. Still, a small part of her felt that she was forgetting something.

Eventually though, she managed to get the job done.

“Alibaba strikes again!” Futaba exclaimed as she leaned back in her chair. A strong feeling of relief made her way through her system, glad that that was finally behind her.

Now all she had to do was wait and see the usual public backlash that always came when exposing a major scandal.

Turning back to her computer to turn all her hacking stuff off, she just now saw that the brute force program had cracked the password hours ago. It seems she was just too in the zone with her other work to notice.

But looking at the clock and seeing just how late it really was right now, she decided to save that for tomorrow. She could just dig through the network on her phone during class. It’s not like the teachers will teach her anything that she doesn’t already know.

Spinning around in her chair, she saw Mona napping on her bed. His head was on her pillow and the rest of him was spread out across her mattress.

But as she got up out of her seat, the sudden whoosh from the cushion reinflating itself woke the kitten up. Mona stretched himself out, and Futaba couldn’t help but smile as he showed off his teeth while letting out a yawn. The kitty then rolled around, showing her a wonderful view of his backside.

“That’s my bed. I need to sleep there.” Futaba simply said. Morgana seemed to move slightly, but not by much.

Futaba turned away from her bed for a moment to get her pajamas out of her closet. But as she turned back around, she saw Mona sitting upright on her bed. Dread filled Futaba as she saw the way Mona’s back legs were positioned. It only meant one thing…

“No, no, nonononononononono…” Futaba frantically blabbered as she drooped what she was holding and quickly rushed over to pick up her cat. She then hastily carried him out of her room and into the hall.

As she forced Morgana down and held him in place on the litter box, her previous anxiety was being replaced with disgust as she noticed that she had gotten some of his pee on her hands.

Once all of it was finally out, Mona forcibly wiggled out of her hands and ran off.

“Thank you, Futaba. I really appreciate all that you do for me…” Futaba grumbled, not bothering to hide her bitterness. Her nose scrunched up as the smell from the cat piss on her hands finally reached it.

While she was in the bathroom, rinsing her hands off with a double helping of soap, she saw Joker. The larger cat was just staring up at her, his grey eyes big and wide. He walked over to her and put one of his paws on her bare foot.

“Oh, so you like me now again.”

As she knelt down and rubbed his head, in the back of her mind she felt like she was forgetting something. But since she couldn’t recall what, she decided to let it be for now.

When Futaba stepped back out into the hall, she felt something wet on the bottom of her foot. Feeling the edge of the wall and quickly finding the light switch and turning it on, she saw that Mona’s mess had gotten all over the floor.

_“Just great…”_

Once Futaba had finally managed to clean that mess up, she went back to her room to just go and get to bed already. Thankfully, she had stopped mini-Satan from leaving any of his mess on her bed. If he had, she really would have flipped.

Just wanting to call it a day at this point, Futaba quickly put on her pajamas and wormed herself into her bed, wrapping her blanket all around her.

 _“Oh, right… I was supposed to give Joker his collar…”_ Futaba just remembered.

 _“Eh, he can wait until tomorrow.”_ Futaba thought, not wanting to free herself from her personal blanket cocoon. It didn’t take long after that until she was fully asleep.

 

\---

 

_So he truly is staying at their place?_

_How abhorrent…_

_Why does he burden them with his presence?_

_They don’t need him. Nobody does._

_He’ll only end up making things worse for them._

_Just like last time…_

 

\---

 

The next day, after Futaba had left for school and Sojiro had left for work, it was just him and Morgana all alone in the house. The smaller cat was just doing his own thing in the living room for a while, occasionally playing with Akira, before he got tired and decided to take a nap.

Akira considered taking one as well, but found that he still had too much energy inside of him for that. Now, having nothing else to do, he decided to use this time to explore this place. He had already seen the hall, the kitchen and the bathroom, but it might be a good idea to familiarize himself with the rest of the house as soon as possible.

Since he was currently in the kitchen, he might as well start there. Even though he was in here yesterday, he wasn’t really paying any real attention to the room itself.

It was pretty much just your standard kitchen. A counter with a sink, a stove/oven and a dishwasher was up against the wall. There were cupboards both inside the counter itself as well as on the wall above it.

The fridge was right next to the counter. The handle was also too high up for Akira to reach. _Damn…_

In the middle of the kitchen was an island with chairs surrounding it. Since nobody else was here at the moment, he thought of using the chairs to jump up on the table.

_On the one hand, if they catch me they’ll probably throw me out. On the other hand… after all that’s happened, this is the least rule breaking I’ve done. And they can’t prove nuthin’ anyway!_

Before he could second guess himself, he quickly made his move. Now getting a better look around, Akira noticed that there was nothing else of note aside from the door leading to the hall and the sliding doors forming a makeshift wall to the living room, both things he already knew.

As Akira jumped down from the table, he noticed that the floor was surprisingly cool for this time of year. _Guess I know where to nap now._

Akira made his way through an open gap in the sliding doors to the living room.

It looked pretty much, no, exactly the same as it did a few minutes ago. A few tatami mats (which Morgana was currently sleeping on) covered the floor, a low table with some pillows around it stood in the center, and there was a couch up against the wall. On the opposite side of the couch was a TV, with what Akira guessed were gaming consoles hooked up to it. He never actually had any, so he wouldn’t know.

Quietly sneaking his way through the living room without waking Mona up, he successfully made it to the hall. The hall was also still the same as it was yesterday.  The only noteworthy things in it were pictures that lined the walls (and were also too high up for Akira to see), the litterbox that only he seems to want to use, and indoor shoes that were right next to the door leading outside.

Most of the doors leading to the other rooms were open, with only a few, such as the door to the bathroom, closed.

The next room he checked was a storage room, from the look of things. All kinds of junk was lying all over the place, with barely any semblance of order. His curiosity getting the better of him, Akira decided to try and squirm through and see if he could find any buried treasures under all this junk.

Unfortunately, when he took advantage of his small body size to get to the hidden nooks and crannies, he saw that all of the things were in boxes. They either had other boxes on top of them, preventing him from opening them, or were far too high up for him to reach. And that wasn’t even without mentioning the piles of stuff with easy to get tangled in tarps on them.

After spending some more time looking around the room, the dust eventually became too much for him. But as Akira was walking out of the room, he wasn’t paying attention, and before he knew it, he was pinned to the ground.

Trying to wiggle himself free in a panic, Akira didn’t take long until he was free. After creating some distance between him and the stupid object and catching his breath, Akira noticed that the things he was just trapped under were actually just a pair of crutches.

 _Wonder why they have these? Sojiro isn’t that old, is he? Eh, whatever…_ Akira thought before quickly rushing out of that dump. After coughing out all that dust for a bit, he made his way to check the next room over.

From the appearance alone, it was just a standard bedroom. And Akira didn’t even really need to look to know whose it was, because the smell of cigarettes already gave that away.

The room itself was fairly standard. A shelf filled with books to on one wall, a single bed up against the other. The third wall had the closet and a window, and the only notable things about the fourth one were the door and a few framed pictures. There wasn’t even anything lying around or any semblance of a mess.

Not caring about that room any more, Akira made his way to the next one. The moment he squeezed his way through the door and got his first glimpse of the place, he was instantly hit with feelings he had long forgotten.

To anyone else, this room would just be your regular broom closet. But to Akira, for better or worse it reminded him of his old home.

Better in the sense that the broom closet was the one place in his parents’ house where he had the most shelter from them. At least for a time.

Worse in the sense that, because it had been due to his father that he’d grown so attached to that cramped and small space, being in one again reminded him of that man again.

His nerves suddenly growing uneasy, he fled to the back of the room and hid behind an empty bucket. Slowly, he moved his head forward and peaked out. If the door wasn’t half open right now he could mentally picture it rattling and his father shouting at him from the other side.

It took a few moments until his internal unrest faded and he was just left with an almost maddening silence. Moving out of his hiding spot and towards the door, he noticed that the door to this broom closet didn’t even have a lock, just a door handle.

Becoming somewhat scared by how that realization made him feel vulnerable and exposed, he decided that he wanted to stay far away from this place. Quickly running out of this room, he hoped that the next room he’d see didn’t remind him of things he wanted to forget. His hopes came true.

After exploring it and a few more, he eventually made his way to a room that looked much more interesting than all the other ones.

Just from the stickers on the door, Akira could immediately tell that this was Futaba’s room. Curiosity building up inside of him, he made his way to the crack in the door. Unfortunately, trying to push open a sliding door as a cat turned out to be much harder than he expected. He tried a few more times before giving up.

As he was laying there on the floor of the hall, catching his breath, Morgana came up to him and simply mewled. Too exhausted to do anything, Akira just stared. Mona then slowly went up to him, licked his face a few times, before climbing up on top of his body. For a few moments, the smaller cat kneaded his belly, until he finally settled in a position he was comfortable with.

Turning his head at an awkward angle to see, his peripheral vision picked up the kitten moving slightly around on top of him, before settling down and not bothering to move any more. Based on the sounds being made, Akira could tell that Morgana was fast asleep. And that he was now a pillow.

Slightly twisting his body so he could breathe a little better, Akira soon both heard and felt Morgana purring on top of him in his sleep.

Since he didn’t have the heart to try and wake the kitten up, Akira resigned himself to his new fate as another feline’s personal bed. Thinking things over for a moment, he realized that he was rather tired from all of the exploring he did.

Yeah, sure, there were some rooms he hadn’t checked, but he could easily just save those for another day. Placing his head on the ground, Akira let sleep overtake him.

 

\---

 

After eating his dinner, Akira played with Futaba some more. Time quickly passed by as she kept tossing one of the toys away and he kept bringing it back to her. Morgana soon joined in and once he figured out what was going on, it quickly turned into a race to see who could get to the mousey first.

And as much as he didn’t want to admit it at first, Akira had to give credit to the kitten. He was definitely a lot smarter and craftier than he looked. Too many times did he feel confident about having gotten to the toy first, only for Mona to launch a sneak attack on him on his way back to Futaba.

And for the record, that only kept working on him because he was letting Morgana win. He was definitely not being outsmarted by someone half his size.

They kept at it for a while before Sojiro told Futaba that it was getting late. The two of them bickered for a bit, before the father said that since tomorrow was a Saturday, she’d have more time to play with them then.

Once Futaba left to go to bed, Akira stayed where he was. This spot on the floor was comfy, so he didn’t move. Morgana joined him soon enough, but this time he didn’t use him as a mattress. Instead, the kitten rubbed his slightly wet nose against Akira’s.

Returning the gesture, Akira watched as the kitten then just plopped down next to him, like it was the most natural thing in the world for him.

Slightly exhausted, but not enough to fall asleep just yet, Akira’s thoughts wandered off again.

While Akira had been exhausted plenty of times before after searching for food and/or shelter during his time on the street, whenever he found a moment to calm down and take a break, it was always bittersweet at best. He could never truly relax. He always needed to keep his guard up, always needed to keep at least a tiny bit up tension inside of him, lest he be caught off guard by feral animals, humans, or the exterminators.

But here, he had everything he could ever ask for. A constant supply of food, a solid roof over his head, and a person that he matters to and wants him around, and a kitten who seemed to be a little clingy to him. Okay, he didn’t ask for that last one, but still.

Speaking of things he didn’t ask for, Sojiro just came back and sat himself down on the couch. The old man put his arms over the back rest, before sighing and turning on the TV.

Morgana was woken up by the sudden noise and got up. The kitten went over to the father and meowed again, almost like he was complaining. Annoyed that the squeaking was drowning out the sound of the TV, Sojiro sighed and picked up the kitten.

“Alright, that’s enough of that…” Sojiro said as he placed the kitten onto his lap.

Morgana didn’t sit still, though. Instead, he awkwardly walked to the man’s knees, looked at Akira and kept making noise, almost as if he wanted him near him.

Since the little one didn’t want to stop, Akira eventually got up and walked over. Just as he did though, Mona went too far to the edge and fell down on the mat. And Akira had a strong feeling the kitten knew exactly what it was doing.

Once Morgana had gotten himself orientated again, Akira was already right next to the couch. Not entirely sure what to do, the bigger cat just sat down. He licked his paw as Morgana finally quieted down, having gotten what he wanted.

Akira fidgeted a little, before settling down as well. Now in a comfortable position, Akira’s attention turned to the TV. Currently, they were showing the news.

 

_“…As of now, Okumura Foods has yet to issue an official response to these claims, which has done little to ease the public’s concern.“_

 

Seeing this report, Sojiro let out a… sound. Akira wasn’t sure what kind of sound, but it was a sound nonetheless. Thinking on it some more, it almost sounded… knowing, if that was even a way a sound could be described. But if that was the case, what could Sojiro know?

Then again, Akira barely knows the man. All he really knows for sure about the man himself is that he’s Futaba’s father, he spends most of the day at work, that he smokes and drinks a lot of coffee, and… that’s pretty much it.

 _Should I try and get to know him a bit better?_ Akira thought. It probably wouldn’t hurt, seeing as living here would mean he’d have to do it sooner or later. And from what he’d seen of the man so far, he seemed to be quite the cat-lover underneath the gruff.

Oh, well. It’s not like he has to make a decision right this moment. Akira had a lot more free time, now that he didn’t need to spend the hours of his days looking for food.

Loosening his tensions, his attention turned back to the TV.

 

_“And now onto our next story…”_

 

The scene on the TV switched to a school on fire. Numerous police cars, ambulances, and firetrucks surrounded the building, seemingly attempting to get the situation under control.

 

_“In regards to the sudden fire at Omizu High School, the police have now revealed the identity of the culprit behind the incident which has claimed the lives of forty-six people and indefinitely hospitalized many others. The culprit was the seventeen year old Hajime Souta, one of the third years of the school. The F.B.E.A. has confirmed what many have suspected, that a were-beast has made use of their powers to enact terror upon defenseless humans. They have also confirmed that the incident had been brought to an end when they had managed to breach the building and shoot the perpetrator. As of now, his motives for committing such an atrocity are still unknown and are currently being investigated._

 

 _“Oh, yeah, I think I heard some people talk about this a while back. So that’s how it came to be, huh? Nice to know that the F.B.E.A. is just as awful at their jobs now as they were back then.”_ Akira thought, bitterly. _“If they were half as competent as they should be, they’d have stopped this before it even became a serious problem.”_

But then again, if they were even a quarter as competent as they should be, he wouldn’t even be in the situation he was now. Although, if that were the case, he’d still be living with people who don’t want him. And he’d have never met Futaba…

Akira shook his head. Thinking about what ifs wouldn’t help him at all. He’d learned that long ago. What mattered was the here and now.

There was no reason to think about his former life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to get out. My life's been kinda hectic recently.  
> I'm also not going to be promising any kind of consistent upload schedule from now on.
> 
> Also, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who's left comments and kudos. It really means a lot to me.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good lord, did this chapter take forever to get done... I'm so sorry about that. There was just too much going on in my life these past few months and I've noticed that winter in general isn't that good on my creativity.  
> But I'm back now. And this is a pretty long chapter, so hopefully that'll make up for it.
> 
> And I cannot thank all of you who left kind comments and gave me kudos. It was the main reason I found the motivation to get this done.
> 
> Speaking of which, this is my first work to reach 100 kudos. Again, I cannot thank you enough.

It began with some pounding against his bedroom door. At first it was only just some faint white noise in the background, but as time passed it quickly kept getting louder and louder.

Of course, it wasn’t enough to get Sojiro to wake up. The man, not wanting to have to arise earlier than necessary, simply pushed the urge to give into the feline’s demands down and stayed in his bed. Maybe if he ignored it, then they’d simply back off and wait until later to be fed.

Unfortunately, that train of thought was proven false when the rattling and thudding became accompanied by a wail of meowing. This also started out small, before turning into a tsunami of noise.

It had been this way for the last few days, in fact. After finding out that Morgana had caught the fleas from Joker and almost making a mess of her bedsheets, Futaba had decided to put an indefinite blanket ban on letting the cats enter her bedroom. And much to Sojiro’s surprise, she actually had the gut to enforce it in the mornings as well. As a result, the younger feline simply switched to him as his morning food dispenser.

Despite being annoyed for not being allowed to sleep any longer, Sojiro didn’t have the heart to refuse Morgana’s demands when he acted like this, so he got up. After making sure he was dressed decently enough in case Futaba was up for whatever reason, he opened his bedroom door.

And just as he expected, sitting on the floor, staring up at him with big wide eyes, was Morgana. Joker was not far away, being his usual passive and somewhat aloof self.

The younger feline came up to him and began rubbing his head against his foot whilst purring. Even though he enjoyed the attention a lot, the man still decided to just get this whole thing over with as fast as possible.

If he were more awake, then maybe he’d be in the mood to at least pet the kitten.

But right now? Not a chance.

After walking to the kitchen while making sure not to trip over Morgana (which sadly had happened before), he got a thing of food out of the fridge.

However, as the man tried to reach for some bowls, he felt a sudden pull on his pants leg. Looking down, Sojiro saw Morgana with his claws dug into his pants, trying to climb up his leg.

“Oh for the love of… get off of me.” Sojiro said as he reached down and carefully grabbed the kitten and set him down on the floor. However, this didn’t seem to deter Morgana at all, because not even five seconds later, he was doing it again.

Knowing that this could result in a never-ending cycle of doing the same thing over and over again, Sojiro instead got Morgana off of him, put him outside the kitchen, and made sure to shut the door behind him.

In spite of all the noise that came from the other side, he finished what he wanted to do and placed the bowls on the floor.

The moment Sojiro opened the door again, Morgana quickly came rushing in. Cautiously stepping past him, the man couldn’t help but turn around and be amused at how quickly getting his food shut the feline up.

Although…

_Wasn’t Joker here just a moment ago?_ Sojiro thought. _Oh well, I guess it doesn’t matter. He’ll come back for the food soon enough._

Still having quite a bit of time left and not having anything else that needs to be done, Sojiro headed back to his room to get a bit more rest.

 

\---

 

_Phew… I made it…_ Akira thought as his body calmed itself down. Even though his breathing finally back at a normal rate, he decided to wait a little while longer before heading back, just in case.

When he saw how Morgana tried to climb up Sojiro, he couldn’t help but end up laughing at the sight. In any other situation, this wouldn’t be an issue in the slightest. But here, if Sojiro heard a human’s laugh out of a cat, it’d be right back to the streets for him.

(Actually, can cats even laugh at all? Well, even if they could, Akira’s pretty sure they’d sound nothing like people.)

Either way, he wasn’t taking any risks. Which is why he ran as fast as he could as far away as he could before Sojiro noticed anything.

Luckily though, this worked out just like he wanted it to. Now feeling that enough time had passed, he made his way back to the kitchen. On his way there, Akira used the time to remind himself of what position he was in.

He couldn’t let himself grow soft. He couldn’t let himself become complacent. And he definitely couldn’t let himself forget the most important truth about this situation:

No matter how nice the Sakuras were to him, if either of them ever found out the truth, it was right back to the streets for him.

He shook his head. There was no need to think about such depressing things. Akira wasn’t caught, so he had nothing to fear.

Knowing it would get his mind off of that topic faster, Akira picked up the pace and ran to the kitchen.

Of course, things couldn’t go his way, now could they?

Having already emptied his own food bowl, Morgana now had his face planted into Akira’s, feasting on what wasn’t his.

_Hey! That’s mine!_ Akira almost wanted to say out loud. Quickly rushing over to his bowl, Akira managed to shoo away the kitten.

Getting a better look at it, he saw that about half of the food was already gone. Akira honestly wasn’t surprised. While at first the speed at which Morgana eats bewildered him, it didn’t take long for him to accept that that’s just how the kitten is.

Oh well…

He couldn’t be too upset over this, since it was his fault for leaving the food unattended in the first place. And half a meal is still much, much better than none at all.

Not in any mood to complain, (after all, what was there to complain about?) Akira helped himself to what was left of his meat.

 

\---

 

Up…

 

Down…

 

Up…

 

Down…

 

Up…

 

Down…

 

Up…

 

Down…

 

Up…

 

Down…

 

Up…

 

Down…

 

Up…

 

Down…

 

Up…

 

…

 

Down…

 

With a sigh, Akira stopped moving the tip of his tail. Even though watching his tail move up and down had lost its novelty quite a while ago, Akira had been so bored that he couldn’t really care about that. The reason he stopped doing so now was that he had gotten bored of that as well.

As he placed his head down on the tatami mat, he moved his eyes to look at the clock.

13:37

Only one minute had passed since the last time he looked at it.

_Just great…_

Having nothing to do other than let his thoughts run wild, he began lamenting his situation. Right now, if he wasn’t mistaken, it was about one week since he stared living with the Sakuras. And in that time, an unexpected problem has arisen.

What Akira had expected from this development was indefinite free food and shelter. Which it had given him. Plus, the attention he was being given by Morgana when he was awake and by Futaba when she came home in the afternoon or the evening was a nice perk. As for Sojiro… he was alright enough. Even though he seemed mostly apathetic and indifferent towards Akira, the boy still considered his company to be much better than his own father, as he could be in the man’s presence without having to fear hostility from him.

But what he didn’t expect was just how dull the rest of the time really was. As soon as the two of them left in the morning to go and do whatever it was that they spent their time doing, Akira quickly became bored out of his mind.

And there wasn’t anything he could do to pass the time. Just to name some of the things that were unavailable to him: all the books tucked away on the shelves, the radio was off, and so was the TV.

Now, none of that would be a problem if he could turn into a human. But the thing was, if he were to do that, there was the very real risk of his deception being uncovered. And if that were to happen, then the best case scenario would be going back to the streets.

Memorizing when Futaba and Sojiro would return and mapping out a schedule around those times wasn’t an option either, since the former’s times of returning home were rather inconsistent, and when she did come back it didn’t feel like she just walked in, but rather stormed the place like a freaking torpedo. Akira’s reflexes, while certainly fast, weren’t fast enough to remove the setup in that short amount of time.

As for the latter, even though his times of returning were more consistent than his daughter’s, he sometimes randomly went back to the house to do something or get something he forgot in the middle of the day. Yes, this happened very rarely, but it did happen, which was more than enough to make Akira not want to go through with that idea.

(It also made Akira question where Sojiro worked, if he could leave his job and come home like that. Did he work in one of the shops in the alleys of Yongen? Actually that would explain it. _Why didn’t I think of that sooner?_ )

Not to mention that fact that, after all they’ve done for him, it’d just feel far too wrong to just mess around with their home and all their stuff like that.

Long story short, Akira could risk it (and it certainly wouldn’t be the first daring, rule-breaking, and slightly morally questionable he’s done), but the stakes were just too high for him to make that gamble. Before, he’d never had anything he’d be too upset about losing, but this was the first thing that had gone… mostly right for him. If only it wasn’t boring as sin…

_And now I’ve thought in a full circle again. Wonderful…_

And it wasn’t like he could play with Morgana to pass the time either, since the young feline usually spent the time when the others weren’t there napping on top of him. Sure, there were times when the kitten was awake and all too glad to keep him company, but most of the time he was just napping, whilst insistently using Akira as his own personal pillow.

This also brought about the additional factor that he couldn’t even spend all this free time walking around the house, since Akira didn’t have the heart to make the kitten get off of him.

There was also the fact that unlike regular cats, which sleep for about twelve to sixteen hours a day, were-beasts only need the same eight hours of sleep as normal humans do. During his time on the streets, this proved to be a useful skill, allowing him to be more alert against potential threats. But all it did for him now was leave him too exhausted to fall asleep.

It was kinda jarring just how frequent the shift between being bored and not being bored happened. When Futaba and sometimes Sojiro were home he didn’t really have this problem at all. Even when they weren’t paying attention to him, just them being there was apparently enough for him to not suffer from lethargy and lassitude. But the rest of the time, fat chance of that happening.

_Thinking of which, what time is it now?_ Akira wondered.

Looking at the clock again, he saw that its display now showed 13:39.

_Well… at least I’m now two minutes closer to not being bored again, whenever that’ll happen._ Akira thought to himself, not that it provided much in the way of consolation.

Closing his eyes, Akira hoped that this wouldn’t go on forever.

 

\---

 

The first thing Akira noticed was that he was on a hard, ground. From what he could feel with his fingers, the ground was damp and cold, with a very uneven surface.

After lifting himself off the ground, Akira tried to assess his current situation. Right from the first glance around, however, he could tell that he had absolutely no idea where he was. Mostly because the place he was in had no light of any kind. It didn’t matter how long Akira waited for his eyes to adjust, all he was able to see was pitch black darkness.

Giving up on the sense of sight, Akira instead tried to use the other senses to get some answers. His nose didn’t seem to smell anything noteworthy, he couldn’t hear anything, and he sure as hell couldn’t taste anything.

Since his sense of touch was the only one left, he tried to feel around. Fortunately, his hand quickly managed to find what felt like a wall. Glad that he had something to keep him proverbially grounded, Akira took a moment to breathe. While doing so, he noticed that the wall felt exactly like the ground; just as damp, cold and uneven.

Moving his hand around, he noticed that whatever the wall was made out of, the pieces were far too big to be bricks. They felt more like large chunks of stone than anything else.

_Just what the heck was this place even supposed to be?_

Thinking about it while using what little information he just got, he concluded that the lack of any sort of light source meant that he was probably underground. That conclusion would also explain the dampness of the walls.

_But how did I get here? And more importantly, how am I going to get out of here?_ he thought.

Deciding that just standing around was a complete waste of time, Akira began walking in the hopes that he could find an exit to this odd place.

Unfortunately, his luck thought otherwise, as no matter how much or how long he walked, Akira could find neither an exit nor anything that could point him to one.

Not to mention, the further he kept going, the more unsettling the location became. This was for a number of reasons.

First, there wasn’t a single sound other than his own footsteps, which only served to add to Akira’s growing anxiety. It didn’t even make him feel safer knowing that nobody being around also meant that there was nobody around to try and hurt him, since they could either just be very good at keeping silent or have set up traps in this place. And even if he did run in to someone here, what were the odds that they would be willing to help him. Anyone who would put him in a place like this couldn’t have his best interests in mind, could they?

Second, the fact that he couldn’t see a single thing only led his mind to run wild with imagining the various possibilities of things that could happen to him.

Would the floor collapse beneath him if he stepped on the wrong spot and drop him into a spike pit, impaling him through every part of his body imaginable? Would he accidentally trip over a wire, filling the tunnels with poisonous gas, leaving him to asphyxiate slowly? Would the walls start spewing fire and have buzz saws all over them?

Akira even had to pause himself a few times just to make sure to stop those trains of thoughts in their tracks before they went too far.

Third was the fact that the longer he kept going without any sort of sign of an exit, the bigger that sinking feeling in his stomach that told him he’d never escape kept growing.

Despite all of these things, he still forced himself to keep going, because if he didn’t, then there was no doubt he wouldn’t be able to leave.

After continuing to scope out this place some more, he eventually became too winded to continue, so Akira decided to take a break. Placing his hand on the wall to support himself, Akira began panting his lungs out.

_For fucks sake, just how big is this shithole?!_

He shook his head. Getting angry wouldn’t solve anything. Akira just had to focus on his goal of finding an exit and not letting himself be so easily distracted.

Deciding that he had enough of a break, he steeled himself and kept going.

As he continued walking through the halls, this time picking up the pace, he eventually began picking up some sort of sound in the distance. Even though he thought earlier about how the presence of others in this place was not necessarily a good thing, Akira couldn’t give a damn about that right now. If the voice belonged to someone friendly, the conclusion was obvious. If it belonged to someone hostile, then maybe there was a chance that they’d just end him here and now instead of continuing to put him through this torment.

But as he seemed to get close enough to hear it better, Akira’s gut dropped. Now being able to get a better hearing of it, one thing was absolutely clear. Whoever was making those noises was most definitely not someone he wanted to have the displeasure of meeting. Ever. Despite thinking just a few moments ago that running into some sort of monster and getting mauled by it wouldn’t be such a bad fate, fear got the better of him and before he knew it, Akira immediately began running in the opposite direction.

Once he had picked up a bit of a pace, however, he could faintly hear the footsteps of someone following him from behind. Frantically, he began running even faster from the mysterious threat.

Despite this, the unknown being’s noises kept getting louder and louder, not only causing Akira to fear that he might not escape it, but also filling him with dread as he was able to discern more of what the sounds actually were.

What Akira heard was a viscerally upsetting monstrous growling noise with what he could only guess was laughter mixed in there as well.

Now running as fast as his legs would carry him, his mind was barely able to control what he thought, as all he could think of was getting away.

Sadly, even at his fastest the monster was still catching up to him, and soon he began hearing even more unnerving things.

 

**I know you’re here.**

 

_That monster… can talk?_

_No… that doesn’t matter_

_I can’t let myself be found!_

 

**You can’t run forever.**

 

_no…_

 

**There is no escape.**

 

No…

 

**Why do continue to resist?**

 

_No!!_

 

**Just give up and die.**

 

_NO!!!!_

 

With a sudden jolt, Akira woke up. Anxiously, he looked around the room. Fortunately, it was just the Sakura’s living room. Light from the street shone in through the window,

_It was just a dream. Phew._ He thought as relief began worming its way back into his system.

His panting gradually becoming normal breathing again, Akira noticed that his body felt unusually light. It only took a moment for him to figure out why.

Instead of laying on top of him, Morgana was standing on all fours, looking over him. His ears were lowered and his head was dropped down.

“Meow?” the kitten “said”. His stubby little tail was slowly swaying back and forth, his ears were turned to the side, and his eyes were firmly locked on him, both wide and barely blinking.

_Crap… Did I wake you up? Sorry about that._ Felling the guilt for making the kitten worry about him and lose his sleep gnaw at him, Akira approached him, hoping to cheer him up again.

Nudging his own head against the kitten’s body, as Akira had seen mother cats do before, the small feline’s body seemed to lose some of its tension.

Unfortunately, this alone didn’t seem to be enough. While it did have some effect, Akira felt that he could do more. But just what?

Well, there was one thing…

Was he really going to do this? Well, it’s too late for going back now, since he was already half way there. His tongue coming into contact with Morgana’s fur, Akira began licking the kitten. And surprisingly enough, it didn’t feel anywhere near as weird as he thought it would.

Probably because he was so used to licking his own fur. Either that, or this was just another aspect of his inhuman nature.

Honestly, Akira preferred the former explanation.

Regardless, this seemed to do the trick, as Mona began purring and curled up next to him in one of his favorite sleeping positions. The vibrations coursing through his body, Akira let his body relax as his mind fully calmed down.

He was safe. There wasn’t any reason for him to be afraid.

Closing his eyes and going back to sleep, Akira hoped he wouldn’t have that nightmare again.

 

\---

 

For normal people, Sundays were the least eventful days of the week. It was the one day where most people didn’t have to work or have school, so most people just used that time to relax.

For Akira it was the opposite. When every other day of the week is spent lounging around the house doing absolutely nothing, any form of excitement is gladly welcomed.

And so far, things have been pretty amusing. A few days ago, Futaba had gotten a rather large and important homework assignment, which was due sometime next week. But instead of doing it sooner, she spent the entire afternoons of the previous days playing videogames. To say that her father wasn’t happy about that was an understatement.

Sojiro, wanting her to get it done today and not have her constantly procrastinating on these tasks, did something Akira would have to admit was rather crafty. Knowing his daughter was a heavy sleeper, Sojiro got up in the middle of the night, went over to the TV, unplugged all the controllers to her game consoles, and hid them somewhere she would be unlikely to find them, let alone reach them.

When she noticed what he had done and went up to her father to complain, he simply told her that she could have them back once she finished all her homework and showed it to him. Shortly after that, he left to go to work.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of things. Unsurprisingly, not long after Sojiro had left, Futaba went to her room and when she came back, she had a spare controller with her.

Akira had to hand it to her. He could definitely not have the courage to disobey his father like that. At least, not if he wanted to be spared from the pain that comes from the sole of a shoe smacking him in the face. _Oh for fucks sake! I need to stop doing this!_

Back to what he was thinking about before…

Just like with any other times she plays video games, Akira found himself rather interested in watching her. Even if he knew absolutely nothing about the games that Futaba liked both in terms of story and gameplay (like, if he were to try and play them for whatever reason, he’d probably suck. Horribly).

Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. What else was there? Staring at a wall from dawn to dusk, letting his thought go to bad places?

Not long after she got into the game, Futaba left the living room and headed to the kitchen. Aside from hearing the fridge was being opened and the microwave being turned on, Akira heard the sound of the front door being unlocked.

Stepping into the house whilst not making too much noise was Sojiro. As soon as he reached the living room, he took one look at the TV before shaking his head and groaning.

When the orange haired girl came back to the living room with a can of Dr. Salt in one hand and some instant noodles in the other, she almost dropped what she was holding from the sight before her.

Instinctively turning back to look at the man, Akira expected him to look angry, to look like he was about to do something that Futaba would definitely not forget any time soon. Instead, however, Sojiro’s face was just a mix of annoyance and not-surprise. Which in some ways Akira found to be more outside of his comfort zone.

“You’re really trying my patience, you know?”

“How did you…?” she asked, looking bewildered.

“Did you think that I didn’t pull this same trick when I was your age?” Sojiro asked, and if he wasn’t so angry right now, Akira could swear he’d be smirking.

“Knew I should have checked the bug…” Akira heard Futaba mumble underneath her breath. Not that he had a clue as to what she was talking about. What did insects have to do with any of this?

“What you should have done is your homework.” Sojiro reached out his hand to her. “Hand it over.”

Futaba clutched the controller tight against her chest and turned to the side. “But I don’t have to turn it in until Tuesday! Can’t I just do it tomorrow night?”

“Funny… I recall you telling me the exact same thing yesterday and the day before that.”

“T-that’s…” Her father kept glaring at her whilst now also letting out a low groan. Sheepishly shrinking into herself, Futaba looked down at her controller, seeming unsure of what to say next.

Not getting any sort of response out of her, her father went to the TV and shut it off. As he did so, Futaba asked “You’ll give it back when I’m done, right?”

“I already told you; you can have it and the others back once you show me that you’ve done your work.” Sojiro replied, kneeling down to her level.

Futaba continued to stare at her controller for a bit. Eventually though, she made up her mind. Despite still looking very reluctant, she did as he asked.

The conversation pretty much ended there, with Sojiro leaving to go back to work. As soon as he left through the door, Futaba sat herself down on the couch, looking a bit upset.

Feeling bad for her, Akira went over to her, jumped up on the couch, and put one of his paws on her pants. It didn’t take long for her to respond and before he knew it, Akira found her hands underneath his front legs and himself being lifted up.

“Are you trying to cheer me up?” she asked. Not sure how to respond to that, Akira simply let out a meow. Let Futaba get whatever meaning she wanted out of that.

The girl looked down at the floor for a brief moment before her eyes locked on to his.

“Hey, Joker… What do you think I should do?” _Why are you asking me? I’m just your “cat”._ Not knowing how to provide a real answer for the second time today, Akira meowed again.

“Well you’re useless, aren’t you?” the girl chuckled before setting him down on her lap and petting his head.

_I think I prefer the sentiment without the sass, thank you very much. And if I can cheer you up, then that’s not even true…_

Futaba stayed on the sofa for a little while longer. Eventually though, she stopped petting him and just decided to go with the easiest solution to her problem.

So she got out her textbooks and notes and just began doing her homework.

After a while, she left to go to the bathroom. Out of sheer curiosity, he decided to use this opportunity to see just what it was that she was working on.

However, as soon as he took a glance at the pages, Akira recognized… absolutely none of the material.

Like, for example, he couldn’t make heads or tails of this Pythagorean theorem thing, he barely had a clue as to what these passages in archaic Japanese meant, and don’t even get him started on all those incomprehensible big words in her science homework.

_Just how old is Futaba anyway?_ Akira wondered. _If I don’t know any of this, she has to be older now than I was back then…_

_Let’s see… It was near the end of my second year in middle school when I had to leave home… and it’s summer now…_

_So if I don’t recognize her stuff…_

_…_

Actually, what does it matter if he knows how old she is or what grade she’s in? It’s not like he’ll ever get into a situation where he has to know the proper honorific or the right level of politeness for her, since he’ll never speak with her in the first place…

Yeah…

Anyway… back to school…

Akira… honestly never liked it. And in all fairness, why would he?

Half of the time, the other students would call him every name in the book. Not just behind his back, but also quite often to his face. Freak, mistake of nature, filthy monster, abomination, smelly beast, and so on and so forth. Some even went so far as to call him one of the school’s seven horrors.

The other half of the time, they would actively avoid and refuse to make any sort of contact with him at all.

He was also the bullies’ favorite target, since the F.B.E.A.’s laws prevented him from fighting back against them. Whenever they wanted to relieve some stress, or they felt like forcing him to use his magic help them, they’d always have him to use as their personal punching bag.

As for the teachers… they were completely useless. They knew what was going on with him, but did jack crap to help him, since that would only mean more work for themselves. Speaking of which, Akira was sure the only reason that they didn’t fail him was because it might cause their pay to be cut and their reputation to drop. Even then, there were still times where it seemed that they would fail him just to get him out of their hair.

In short, he saw no reason to care about it at all. This resulted in him ditching class whenever he could. Which was pretty easy to do, seeing as nobody cared enough to go looking for him.

The only reason he even bothered trying to get through school at all was because his father refused to allow him to get failing grades. Of course, he didn’t do it out of parental love or a desire to see his son succeed.

Instead, the real reason he did this was because the last (and only) time Akira’s grades dropped to the point that he and his father had to be called in for a parent teacher conference, his father got so mad at him afterwards for wasting his time that Akira swore to never let that happen again. Even now, he still remembers just how much his butt hurt for the next few days, especially when he had to sit down.

_Damn it! I’m doing it again!_ Akira thought, frustrated as he tried to push those memories aside.

Why was it that whenever the opportunity presented itself, his mind would always try to make a connection with and steer his thoughts towards something bad that happened in his past?

All of those things happened years ago, so there shouldn’t be any more reason to think about them. Yet his mind constantly feels otherwise.

The worst part about it is that it always seems to work, and Akira has absolutely no idea why.

And this was one of the better days. Other times, it would take much longer for him to catch himself doing this. In some of the really bad cases those thoughts could be stuck in his head for hours.

But since he caught himself so quickly, what other things could he think about to get his mind off those topics?

Luckily for him, it was at that moment that he heard the sound of Futaba flushing the toilet. As he heard the sink running, Akira realized that she might notice something was up if he looked like he was actually reading.

_Crap! Think, Akira, think! What would Morgana do in this situation? Oh, right!_

He put his paw on the paper, moving it across the page in simple strokes. Seeing this, Futaba chuckled and said “Aww… Do you want to study too?”

As she said that, she put her hands underneath him and picked him up.

“Trust me; you don’t want to go to school. You really don’t. At all.” Futaba continued.

Akira almost wished he could talk just so he could agree with her. But since he couldn’t, she simply put him down on the sofa.

Making himself comfy on one of the pillows, he kept watching her. The next thing he knew, Akira was woken up by the sound of the front door being slammed shut. Immediately afterwards, Futaba came down though the hall with her game controller.

_Did I doze off?_ Akira wondered as he watched Futaba set up her game again. Looking at the clock, it now displayed 11:43.

A whole hour and a half, huh? Well, at least this nap didn’t leave him too fatigued.

After stretching his legs, Akira made himself comfortable on the couch. He’d make sure he’d enjoy this day as much as he could, since he knew all too well how tomorrow would be.

 

\---

 

“Shut the fuck up, you filthy slut!” Akira heard his daddy shouting very loudly through the door to his bedroom. “Don’t you dare lie to me! Now fess up already, you fucking whore!”

“I told you, I didn’t do anything like that! I’ve been faithful this entire time! Why won’t you believe me?” his mommy cried in return.

“Then how do you explain that bastard?!”

For some reason, Akira’s mommy and daddy are very mad at each other. And Akira could tell this was a really bad fight, since his papa was using the grown up words.

While Akira had no clue as to what any of those words even meant (like, what even was a skank? A cross between a skunk and a tank? No, that doesn’t make any sense…), he could tell that his dad was really angry. His parents, even when they were mad at him, always did their best not to let him hear those words.

So what had changed?

Akira wasn’t sure why any of this was happening. He didn’t do anything wrong. Mommy didn’t do anything wrong. So why was daddy mad?

Akira didn’t know why his parents were fighting. But he did know when they started fighting:

A few days ago, after he and his daddy came back from the doctor. They had to go there because something weird was happening to him for the past few months.

It began on his fifth birthday. When he got his cake and tried it, he thought that his mommy had made it with the disgusting and bitter grown-up chocolate. He was very confused when both his mama and his papa ate a piece and said it was the kiddy chocolate. Back then, he thought they were lying, but since then, all of his favorite and not-so favorite sweets started tasting like absolutely nothing. So it seems they weren’t.

And it wasn’t just that; during the next few months, his body was being even weirder.

The noises around him began sounding louder and louder, and the smells from everywhere kept getting smellier and smellier. He’s used to it now, but when this first happened, it just gave him headaches. A lot of headaches. At times things even got so bad that he just curled himself up into a ball and tried to completely block out the world around him.

He’d also get sick seemingly at random. Sometimes it was just stomach aches, but other times he’d wake up in the middle of the night to throw up. His mommy thought it was because he ate something bad at first, but when it kept happening again and again and again, she had no clue at all.

For a while, he thought that all of this was what the older kids called puberty, until his mommy told him that he was still too young for that.

Eventually, his mommy convinced his daddy that he wasn’t being a… Hippo-Condor-Yak, and he was finally taken to a doctor, even if his daddy wasn’t too happy about doing so.

The doctor did a few tests with him. He put a fur-mom-e-tur in his mouth, he held that cold metal thingy on Akira’s heart, he wrapped that weird thing around his arm, and he did a bunch of other stuff.

When he was done, they knew what was wrong with him. The doctor told him that he was showing a lot of signs of being a were-beast. He didn’t know which kind of animal Akira could turn into or what powers he’d get yet, but Akira didn’t care. Just the news by itself was enough to make him very excited.

The doctor also told his papa that he had to give him some of his… dee-en-ay for a test or something.

On the ride home, Akira was happy because of what he heard. Turning into an animal and being able to use magic when he was older sounded like a lot of fun. He couldn’t help but think of what he’d be able to do.

His daddy, on the other hand, wasn’t. At all. When Akira tried to talk about what he had just heard, the man just told him to be quiet. After that, no matter what he said or did, the man wouldn’t say anything and just ignore him.

When they came home, his father told him to go straight to his room. Despite really wanting to tell Mommy about what he just learned, he knew better to argue when his daddy was being all grumpy. Plus, he was feeling a bit tired after the long car ride.

But that was when it all went really wrong…

Right after he shut his bedroom door, his papa began yelling at his mommy. He called her all kinds of words Akira had never heard of before. Bitch, slut, whore, easy woman, and so on and so forth. He kept doing it unitl late in the night. Akira wanted to go up to them and ask what was wrong, but he was too scared of his daddy. He’d never seen him like this before.

The next few weeks his mama and papa didn’t talk to each other. In the mornings, during breakfast, his daddy ate his food as fast as he could before leaving for work. During the day, he never called home to ask how mommy was doing anymore. At night Akira never saw him again, because he always came home after he’d already gone to bed.

He even stopped saying good morning and good night completely. Both to mommy and to Akira.

More than once, Akira tried to ask his mommy what was going on, but whenever he did, she’d act like she didn’t hear him and pretend he wasn’t even in the room.

And today, when a letter from the doctor came (Akira knew who wrote the letter because it had the same symbols on it that he saw at the doctor’s office.), the moment Akira gave it to his dad and he read it, his face turned much redder that a tomato. It also turned to the angriest expression Akira had ever seen, which is why he quickly hid himself in his room.

Which seemed to be the right choice, since his daddy was even more angry at his mommy than before.

“B-But the test…“

“I DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THAT CRAP!! His daddy shouted louder than Akira had ever heard him, causing the boy to flinch. His gut sank further with fear as he pressed his ear harder against the door. “You probably just payed the doctor to say it was positive, didn’t you?! You just didn’t want people to find out how easy you really are, didn’t you?!”

“N-No! I’ve been faithful! I SWEAR!” Okay, now Akira really had no idea what they were talking about. Why would dad think mom wasn’t faithful? She was super faithful. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t constantly be taking him with her on those super boring trips to the town shrine every week.

“Oh really?! Then why did you have the doctor fake the results?”

“And just how would I have gotten him to do that?”

“Oh don’t play dumb with me! One of your boyfriends probably gave you the cash. Or you simply provided him with those services you just love handing out so much…”

His parents kept doing that for another long while. Eventually though, they stopped. Keeping his ear pressed against the door, he heard his daddy leave the house and drive away in his car.

Akira kept listening. He heard his mommy plop down on her bed and start to cry. Nervous and not wanting to be alone, the boy went to his parents’ bedroom.

“Mommy…?” Akira mumbled as he peeked through the door. She didn’t seem to hear him, so he quietly opened it and inside. After going up to her and climbing up on the bed, he put his hand on her back. It’s what she did whenever he was sad, after all.

“Don’t be sad, mommy.” He began rubbing his hand up and down her back.

“Akira…” She said quietly as she moved slightly.

“M-Mommy…?” he asked, hopeful. Was she feeling better? Would she finally tell him what was going on?

“Go to your room. I don’t want to see you.” She said, not bothering to look at him. Her long hair was hanging down, keeping him from seeing the look on her face.

Akira was almost going to do so, before stopping himself. He had enough of watching his mama and papa be mad at each other. Calling forth all his strength, he simply said “No”.

This fighting between his parents has gone on for too long, and he was going to make it stop. And the first step to doing that was to find out why they were fighting.

For a moment, there was silence.

“What did you just say?”

“NO.” he repeated, this time louder than before to make sure she heard him.

“Akira…“ She was about to say something, but Akira, not noticing her tone of voice, cut her off.

“You and daddy are always either yelling at each other or not talking to each other! You never spend time together like you used to! And I’m sick of it! Now, when daddy comes back home, I want you two to say sorry and be a happy family again!” Akira commanded, making sure to use the same tone whenever mommy scolded him.

“What gives you the right to talk back to me?!” she shouted.

Before he could react to that, she grabbed the collar of his shirt and used it to pull him towards her. As he struggled to breathe, she forced him to stare in her cold, gray eyes.

“You want to know why we’re fighting? Why we hate each other?” She pulled him even closer towards her.

“It’s all your fault, you worthless child! It’s all _your_ fault that he thinks I’m some filthy tramp! That I’m just a stupid call girl who hands out herself out for five yen. All I wanted was to be a normal house wife. Just relax at home while that idiot takes care of all the hard work. But no, you had to come along and fuck it all up!” Her grip on his shirt tightened. “Why couldn’t you just have been born normal like the other children?!”

“I-I’m sorry!” Akira screamed as tears began swelling up underneath his eyes. Even though he didn’t understand all of the words she was saying, he didn’t need to. Her words were spoken in such a tone of ire that it was impossible to misunderstand them.

“Sorry won’t cut it, you piece… of… shit!!”

In the moment after she said that, Akira saw her lifting her free hand. And before he had a chance to react, he felt the palm of her hand hit him in his face. It sounded just like a whip cracking. The sound echoed loudly through the room, drowning out all other noise.

The pain lasted for only a moment. But it was a moment too long. Akira was frozen in place with shock. He felt sick. It was all too much for him. His cheek stung horribly with pain and an unfamiliar sensation of weakness and vulnerability consumed him.

He simply stared as his mother’s face didn’t change at all. Her eyes still coldly stared back at him, her mouth was still a solid line, and there wasn’t even a hint of regret to be found on her. She had gotten mad at him before. She had yelled at her son in the past. But whenever she did, she felt bad about right away and immediately tried to comfort him. But now that love and care was nowhere to be found.

A few moments passed, and as the shock freezing his arms and legs went away, tears began filling up his vision. They felt warm and wet as they escaped his eyes and slid down his face. As they did, his head began feeling incredibly hot. Now fully crying, Akira managed to free himself from her grip. His emotions overwhelming him, he instinctively fled to his room. It was the only safe place he knew at the moment.

Still feeling the sting from the slap, Akira hid himself under his sheets. Hiding in the safety of his bed and clutching his sheets for comfort, he cried without pause.

 

As the tears started to dry up a little, his eyes feeling swollen and puffy, a million thoughts began running through his mind at once.

 

_Why?_

_Why is any of this happening?_

_Why did mommy hit me?_

_Why does she hate me?_

 

The more he thought, the more the tears began forming again. As he lay frozen in his bed and began crying again, a horrible realization dawned on him:

 

His parents hated him.

Mommy and daddy would just keep shouting and screaming at each other.

They wouldn’t go back to being the happy family that they used to be…

 

That night, Akira cried himself to sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if some of the scenes feel a little, for lack of a better word, choppy. I just wanted to finally get this chapter out.  
> Also, the scene between Futaba and Sojiro was originally going to have more dialogue, but this chapter's long enough as is.
> 
> On another note, a commenter asked me to show an image of kitty Akira. I have a drawing of him saved on my computer, but I can't figure out how to upload it to save my life. If any of you could help me out, that'd be great.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is actually just the first half of what I had planned to be chapter 6, but since the second half is taking longer than expected and I don't want you guys to have to wait so long again, I'm just making the first half into a standalone chapter.  
> So enjoy.
> 
> And once again, I cannot thank you enough for all the support you have shown me.

_“Damn it! Not again!”_ Futaba thought as she leaned back in her chair, exhausted.

_Why wasn’t there a warning about how difficult this would be? Like, this isn’t your average side quest. It’s post game stuff. And there isn’t even any grinding DLC!_

Futaba had spent the past few days trying to figure out how to solve that dispute between Toya Yamagata and Uta Umeki. But despite her best efforts, she wasn’t able to find a solution to the problem.

Futaba tried to tell some of the other teachers about what she had heard, but she either got the exact same reaction as Miss Tokuda, or she got cold feet from trying to speak with strangers.

She thought of counter-blackmailing Yamagata to get her to stop, and while the plan itself could be easily executed (collecting incriminating info about a person online is one of the easiest things in the world, even without super hacking skills), there was one major problem that completely ruled out that plan:

The high risk of Alibaba’s real identity being discovered.

Since there wasn’t a single trace of Yamagata’s blackmail in any digital network, the logical conclusion would be that Alibaba found out about it in the real world. If the police knew that, then they’d know which school Alibaba goes to, or at least is connected to in some way. And if they know _that,_ then it wouldn’t be long before she was arrested.

Just that one fact alone was enough to cripple Futaba’s ability to act.

Sure, the police are as much of a joke as game journalists, but Futaba knew that she couldn’t be completely careless with her hacking. Especially after the Okumura stunt had bumped her up on the wanted list.

The hackette tried to think of other things she could try, but no matter how hard she tried, she could never move past the first stage. She just didn’t know what to do.

Speaking of things that Futaba didn’t know the answer to, while she was trying to figure out how to solve this matter, another question popped up in Futaba’s mind: How did Yamagata find out about Umeki being a were-canary in the first place?

There wasn’t anything in the school that could have clued Yamagata in about Umeki-san being a were-beast. The reason Futaba had thought there was is because she forgot that the law granting schools the right to know whether a child was a were-beast or not had been overturned a few years ago.

Yamagata couldn’t have found out by observing the Umekis, since only Uta’s father is also a were-beast and he’s been on overseas business trips for the last few months. And the other relatives did everything they could to keep others from finding out about this.

The only other place where Futaba was able to find this information at all was in the F.B.E.A.’s official registry. And there was no chance in hell that a basic bitch who spends her time on the internet watching makeup tutorials on YouTube and posting a hundred tweets per day about how great she is has the technical know-how to hack into government servers without getting caught.

_Why can I bring society’s most protected scum to justice, but fail against some stupid thirteen-year old?_

Futaba hated the idea of rage-quitting like some low level scrub, but if things kept going on like this…

“Hey, Futaba. Is everything okay?” Sojiro asked. Lifting herself up and turning around, she saw him standing in the doorway to her room.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine…” she said as she got up off her chair.

Of course, she’s known Sojiro long enough to know that he wouldn’t believe her. Sure enough, after a just a moment he asked “Is there something I can do to help?”

“No, it’s fine…” He looked like he was about to ask her more questions, but thankfully chose not to press the matter.

Instead, he said “If you say so… Anyway, dinner’s ready.”

“I know.” As he left, she took another glance at her monitors. She thought for a bit, before deciding that a break from this was probably what she needed. After all, she always made the least progress when she was stressed and her head felt like mush.

As soon as she got to the living room, she kneeled down by the table. After saying grace, she broke her chopsticks apart and began eating her fried chicken. Thankfully, Sojiro didn’t ask about what she was doing before.

They ate in silence. Once Futaba was mostly done with her food, Sojiro asked. “By the way… wasn’t there something I was supposed to remind you of?”

“What do you mean?”

“The other day you told me to remind you to do something in case you forgot to do so again.”

The gears turned in Futaba’s head as she mumbled “Something I forgot… something I forgot… Oh, right! That!” She exclaimed just as the memory returned to her. But now that it was finally back with her, she immediately rushed to her room.

Sojiro just watched in bewilderment as Futaba dashed off. A bunch of different sounds could be heard in the distance, but he simply stayed where he was. He knew better than to get in her way when she showed this kind of passion. Especially since the things she showed it for were mostly benign. Mostly.

A few minutes later, she came back with something in her hand. As she came closer, Sojiro saw that it was a red cat collar. _Oh no…_

“Where’s Joker?” she asked, leaning almost uncomfortably close to him.

Against his better judgement, Sojiro replied “I think I saw him in the bathroo…”

“Cool, thanks!” Futaba blurted out in record speed before dashing away again.

For a few moments, the man remained frozen in place, staring off towards the hall. He knew all too well what his daughter was planning on doing, and that worried him.

Sojiro then took a glance at his food, before deciding that he’d eaten enough already. _Might as well check up on what she was doing to the poor cat_. _Hopefully, she wouldn’t be as rough with him as she was with Morgana._

When he got to the bathroom, Futaba was sitting on the floor. Joker was there as well, seemingly involuntarily placed on her lap. The moment that his adoptive daughter noticed his presence, she held up the cat.

Sojiro immediately noticed the collar now placed around the cat’s neck. The bright red was very visible and distinguishable from the black fur.

_Oh great… this again…_

“Sojiro! Look at Joker’s new accessory. It adds 10 points to his cuteness stat.” Futaba proudly said as she placed Joker on her lap. The girl made some unintelligible baby-talk to the cat as she began pinching his cheeks. Joker crunched his face as he pawed at her hand. It took a bit for her to get the cue, but she soon let him down.

“Was that all you wanted to do?” he asked.

“Yep.” Futaba walked a few steps to the door before she stopped and looked up at him. “We still have more of that chicken, right?”

“It’s in the kitchen. Help yourself.” Sojiro replied, hoping to get her to leave the room as soon as possible. Thankfully, she did.

The moment that Futaba disappeared from his sight, Sojiro heard a horrid sound coming from below. Looking down, the man saw exactly what he was expecting. Joker was panting heavily, whilst making short but frequent bursts of sharp inhaling. Just the sound of it made his stomach feel uneasy.

Unable to simply stand there and watch, Sojiro decided to take action and knelt down. Unexpectedly, as he extended his hand towards the feline, Joker looked apprehensive whilst sinking into himself.

“Hey, it’s okay. I just want to help.” Sojiro said in his calmest voice, hoping to avoid making the situation worse. A few moments passed before Joker slowly moved towards him. Even though the cat flinched when he reached his hand out, he didn’t seem nearly as tense as he was before. Soon enough, Joker was right beside to him.

Glad that he was able to do something now, the man got to work. Going for the obvious cause of the problem, Sojiro reached for the neck to see if he could squeeze two fingers between the collar and the neck. And just as he expected, he could barely get one finger halfway through. He sighed. Of course this would be just like last time.

When he and Futaba had gotten a collar for Morgana, she had made the exact same mistake as she had done now. And just like this time, she hadn’t even been aware of what she had done, since Sojiro had fixed the problem behind her back. He would have told her about when a cat’s collar was on too tight, but since he hadn’t expected her to adopt a second cat off the streets, he saw no reason to. In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best decision, but it was too late to change the past.

“There, that should do it.” With those words, Sojiro let Joker go. The cat stared at him, looking almost contemplative, before rubbing his head against the back of his hand.

Pleasantly surprised, Sojiro let him keep this up for a few minutes. As the time passed, Sojiro swore he could hear faint purring.

“Alright, that’s enough of that…” Sojiro said, but as he began pulling his hand away, Joker suddenly put his paw on top of it. With a strength that Sojiro was definitely not expecting, the cat kept it pinned to the ground.

“Let me go. I have to finish dinner.” But the cat wouldn’t budge. Sojiro let out a sigh.

“First Futaba bosses me around and now this? Are you taking after her?” As if to say yes, the cat simply let out a meow. Mildly annoyed, Sojiro contemplated the situation. _Well… since no one is looking…_

“Fine. But only for a little longer.” Joker mewled with joy as he pressed his head harder against Sojiro’s hand. Automatically, the fingers began scratching again.

Just as he was getting used to this affection, a bright flash of light suddenly filled the room. Turning around, Sojiro saw Futaba standing in the doorway, with her phone held out.

“Damn it! I thought I’d turned the flash off…” Futaba grumbled. She looked at Sojiro with a sheepish expression on her face for all of one second before it changed to a smug one instead.

With a tone of voice that showed not regret whatsoever, she quickly blurted out “SorryNotSorry!” before running off again.

After simply staring in awe for a few moments, he turned his focus back to the floor, but Joker seems to have run off while he wasn’t looking. Even though Sojiro was mostly indifferent to what just happened, a part of him felt disappointed that the cat had left him like that. Not that he’d let anyone know about it. But on the bright side, at least he was now free to do what he wanted.

Seeing no reason to stay in the bathroom any longer, Sojiro headed back to finish his dinner.

 

\---

 

The rest of dinnertime was pretty uneventful. Futaba and Sojiro finished their meals, they cleaned up the dishes, same old same old… Nothing that Akira hadn’t seen before.

Once they were done with that, Futaba immediately went back to her room and locked herself in it for apparently the rest of the night. For what reason Akira neither knew nor cared for. As such, it was just him and Sojiro in the living room, the latter watching TV.

That night’s news talked about several different things: A mass recall of a new ice cream flavor due to containing pieces of metal, Risette’s latest tour across Japan, large backlash from the general public towards the CEO of a fast food company, and so on and so forth. None of that really interested Akira. The most attention that program got from him was the weather report, which promised clear skies and temperatures around thirty-one degrees for tomorrow. He already wasn’t looking forward to it.

Instead, Akira spent that time getting used to the feeling of now having a collar around his neck. It didn’t hurt or anything, it just felt... off. Especially since he wasn’t expecting Futaba to spend money on him like that. But since she did, he might as well accept the gift.

(Though Akira was weirded out a bit when he realized that this was technically the first piece of clothing he’d worn in over a year.)

Regardless, it now no longer felt like he would slowly suffocate to death. And Akira was pretty sure that he’d get used to wearing it soon enough.

_Anyway, back to what’s on TV…_

Commercials ended and the program switched to a celebrity interview program. Even though Akira had little interest in those kinds of shows, he figured he might as well sit through it. It’s not like he really had anything else to do.

“…former head of the F.B.E.A. and currently a member of our country’s esteemed diet, please give a round of applause for Masayoshi Shido!”

The crowd cheered as the focus switched to show an older man, somewhere in his early fifties, with a noticeably bald head, a formal suit and a pair of bright orange glasses. He very clearly enjoyed the attention he was being given as he made his way to his seat.

As soon as he sat himself down, Shido gave a speech about what an honor it was for them to have him on their show, how successful his party had been in recent times, yada yada yada…

They went back and forth, with her asking questions about his current political activities and him gloating about what a great man he was and how Japan was blessed to have him.

It made Akira sick to his stomach. Both with sheer disgust as well as with dread that this man could be the future of the country. The fact that this guy was once the leader of the F.B.E.A. did not help matters at all.

Still, the more he listened to Shido talk, the more he kept feeling like he’d seen him somewhere before. Akira dismissed that thought just as quickly as it appeared. After all, there’s no way one of the highest ranking politicians would ever go to a middle-of-nowhere shithole like his hometown.

He was about to tune out, when they switched to a more interesting discussion.

“And now on to some questions from our viewers. As to be expected, a lot of them are about the Omizu High Massacre. Since you are the former head of the F.B.E.A., what are your thoughts on how the agency handled the issue, Shido-san?” The interviewer asked, her cheerfulness unwavering in spite of the current topic.

“I had thought that the agency would be left in good hands after my leave, but it seems as though I was sadly mistaken. If they are unable to do something as simple as spot murderous… _abominations_ and dispose of them before it’s too late, I worry for the future of this country. These creatures are nothing more than a stain on the world that should be cleansed, before they can use their foul sorcery to wreak even more calamity.” Shido said, making sure to vocalize his disdain for were-beasts.

_So one bad were-beast existing means that all of us should die out? Really?!_

If Akira didn’t hate this guy before, he sure does now. Though this shouldn’t have been a surprise. After all, since he used to be in charge of the F.B.E.A., just about every problem in Akira’s life could in some way be traced back to this shithead.

“What excellent insight! Truly wonderful!” _Is this lady serious? Wait, what am I thinking? Of course she is…_ “This brings us to our next question. Many have been criticizing the changes to the laws concerning were-beasts that were enacted in the last few years, saying they’ve been much too lenient by giving were-beasts more rights. What are your thoughts _?”_

This baffled Akira.

 _The F.B.E.A. actually changed some of their shitty policies?_ _That… I did not expect that..._

It made him wonder which of the laws they changed. Obviously, the punishment for any were-beast who physically hurt a human having changed was just a pretty fantasy, but Akira knew plenty of other laws that were more plausible. Like the law preventing were-beasts from running for official positions like mayor, the law allowing a were-beast to be paid significantly less for the same amount of work as a human, or the law forbidding divorce between a were-beast’s biological parents.

Though… even if that law had been changed, he probably wouldn’t have been any better off. His father has made it very clear to him that he would have left his mother if he could. So the only two choices for him would be to live with a man who hated the idea of supporting a child he thought wasn’t his, or a woman who could not support herself financially and just mooched off of others. The marriage itself was a complete train-wreck, but them being allowed to break up would only have caused things to fall apart even more, with him ending up…

_Nope… not going down that train of thought…_

Glad that he caught himself before his internal state could get worse, he switched his focus back to the program.

“Such lenience cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. There are far too many people out there who do not understand that these creatures are nothing but monsters which will stop at nothing to hurt the hapless people of this country. What Japan needs is not the weak-willed fools currently governing it, but a strong leader who can keep those monsters down with an iron leash!”  Aaaaaand Akira immediately regretted the decision to keep watching.

“You’re absolutely right!  I truly feel glad, knowing that there are still noble men like you, doing everything they can to make Japan into the best that it can be!” The interviewer said with such sickeningly sweet cheerfulness that it made Akira want to throw up. Even more so when the studio audience started cheering for Shido as well. But to be honest, he really should have seen this coming.

Of course any changes for the better would be met with negativity and criticism. Why wouldn’t they?!

Because human’s are just naturally shitty beings, that’s why. They only care about themselves, with no regard for anything else. For as long as Akira could remember, it had always been like this.

There was also the fact that this man obviously doesn’t care about the people who were traumatized by and hurt or killed in the Omizu massacre. All Shido was doing was simply using this as a means to further his own political agenda.  And the fact that the people were cheering him on, like he was some sort of great and golden god… it was simply sickening.

Akira could already feel his blood boilingand his gut was twisting into a knot. Realizing where his mind would go to if he kept thinking about this, he tried to think of anything that could calm himself down.

 _I guess if there’s one upside to my current situation, it’s that I don’t have to deal with guys like him anymore. Still… if I could do something about him…_ Akira pushed that thought aside. Thinking about impossible what ifs was nothing more than a waste of time.

The point was, that Akira has had too many negative experiences with normal humans to ever truly think positively of them.

 _Except for Futaba and Sojiro._ _They’re alright._

The former was the one who took him in and still feeds him from time to time Although her idea of playing can be a bit rough at times.

As for the latter, while he didn’t really care about Sojiro at first, the man was the one currently on morning feeding duty and he did save Akira from choking to death, so he was alright enough.

Leaving his thoughts and retuning to the real world, Akira took one glance back at the TV before deciding that he couldn’t stomach that show any more. Fortunately for him, a distraction appeared in the shape of Morgana.

Akira couldn’t help but stare as the kitten approached him. Before he had a proper chance to react to this, Mona began pawing the tag on his new collar. The small piece of metal swung back and forth, Morgana’s focus on it showing no sign in wavering.

And the next thing he knew, the kitten’s head was right up against Akira’s body. Even though he couldn’t see what Morgana was doing, Akira still heard and felt the tag being chewed on.

It was fine for a few moments, but then Morgana began pulling at the tag, and dragging the collar with it. A severe pressing pain aching in the back of his neck, Akira pulled himself backwards. He took a few steps backwards, while Morgana just stared at him.

About five seconds passed, before the kitten was moving towards him again. Knowing exactly what to expect from him and having had enough attacks directed at his neck for one day, thank you very much, Akira made a run for it.

Of course, Morgana immediately gave chase. They ran all across the house, with Akira constantly seeking out new hiding spots from Morgana, who would find all of them sooner or later.

It was… actually a lot of fun.

The two of them continued this game of cat and… other cat until they grew too tired to keep it up. Completely exhausted, both of them settled down on the living room floor. As he watched Morgana fall asleep, Akira thought back on this day.

The majority of it was the same tedious dullness as the rest of them, but thankfully the evening had been eventful enough to take his mind off of it, if only for a little while.

Of course, dread filled Akira’s gut as he remembered that when he’d wake up again tomorrow, he’d have to endure those torturously long hours of sheer nothing once more.

With that thought lingering in the back of his mind, Akira fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I've had for a while now.
> 
> Let me know what you think of it.


End file.
